ARTPRO

ART AS THE STORE FOR WEALTH Art has long been valued for more than its beauty. From Old Masters to contemporary pieces, art has been used as a store for wealth for people wanting to invest in assets that are largely immune to the movement of the financial markets. The chain of title, however, is as valuable as the work itself with complete provenance correlating with higher returns.

THE GREATEST THREAT As much as 30% of all art sales are believed to involve forged pieces. The Deloitte Art & Finance Report 2017 lists ‘authenticity, lack of provenance, forgery, and attribution’ as ‘the greatest threat to the reputation of the art market’.

BARRIERS TO GROWTH The online art market is yet to reach maturity and efforts to promote its growth have been futile because buyers’ concerns haven’t been addressed. The lack of transparency surrounding both condition and pricing, a shortfall of available information to educate buyers about the art and the reliability of the authenticity of a piece have been preventing the conversion between browser and buyer.