Art investing and Protecting Your Investments
Anything of value will always be susceptible to damage from wind, water, fire or theft. While art investing, often the focus is on price and profit. Many do not take into account what may happen if the portfolio they have put so much money toward was destroyed. Any investor should take reasonable steps to protect their investment. This is particularly true in art investing.
If art investing is a way of allowing you to enjoy magnificent works of art, then you will most likely want to keep them in your home. The best way to protect your investments is the same way you protect your home and family. Deadbolts and a security system will help ward off intruders. Hopefully these are measures you take already, regardless of art investing and protecting your portfolio. However, should you choose to keep your artwork elsewhere, a professional storage and handling company may be your best bet.
Professional art storage companies are of great assistance in art investing. These companies will store your pieces in climate and humidity appropriate, secure places. Additionally, they will ship the pieces just as securely. This is an asset for art investing because when a piece sells, you simply make a phone call and tell them where it needs to go. Art storage and handling firms are also insured and bonded. Should the worst happen and a piece is damaged or destroyed, you will be compensated.
Many art owners may also choose to loan their artwork to a museum. The museum will display it and keep it secure between art investing transactions. This is a win-win situation for the art investor and the museum. Most museums are also insured and bonded should catastrophe occur. This is also a good way to ensure that the piece is being enjoyed by multitudes of people, and the storage may not cost you a dime.
You can protect your investments by storing them safely and taking precautions to protect them, but often bad things are going to happen regardless. Art investing is difficult enough without losing your portfolio to fire, theft or other disastrous incidents. By insuring your portfolio items, you can protect your financial health and probably sleep a little better at night. Often your homeowners insurance can be endorsed to include your artwork. Depending on your current rates, coverage may increase by $1 to $5 per $1000 of value of the piece.
Some art investing may be pricier than a typical homeowner's policy will cover. For those items, specialty insurance may be the best way to go. Specialty insurance markets such as Lloyds of London concentrate on uncommon, expensive and high risk items. These markets can insure everything from an oil rig to a baseball player's arm. Often art investing portfolios worth hundreds of millions of dollars may often find a befitting policy in such a market.
Even with the best security and insurance, your art investing will eventually leave you in search of an art restorer. Trained art restoration experts will make easy work of restoring an old, dirty, or damaged piece. Your art investing portfolio value could even increase once a slightly dingy classic work is spruced up to its original quality.
When restoring paintings and other mediums that are more than 100 years old, special chemicals are used to mimic the pigments and binders used when the work was created. This has been developed through decades of experimentation with microscopy and other non-destructive techniques. Unless you were one of those who developed these methods, stick to the art investing and leave the restoration and cleaning to the professionals.
Art investing can be complicated enough without having to worry about the safety of your portfolio. That is why a smart art investor will take the right steps before disaster strikes. With many pieces of great artwork, you may not be the first owner, and probably not the last. Protect these works not only for your own financial wellbeing, but for future generations to enjoy.
