JD Malat Gallery in London's Mayfair has released a report that highlights three artists who should offer a safe haven to investors in 2020 Art is money. Warhol might have taught us that, or maybe we've known it since the Pope accidentally kick-started the Reformation by selling indulgences to fund the total renovation of the Vatican (and with it, of course, the Sistine Chapel). Maybe it was truly driven home more recently, when Damien Hirst held his record-breaking sale at Sotheby's on the same day Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008, netting a cool £111 million.
Either way, the point is that art has always been an investment as much as a highfalutin cultural endeavour. While the average person in the street may have no idea where the art market is going, or why a banana taped to a wall is worth $120,000, the Mayfair ecosystem dedicated to its sale is as vibrant as ever. And, this week, JD Malat Gallery on Davies Street has released a report that assesses the market, its continuing growth and three of the very best artists to invest in right now.
"The historical returns on funds invested demonstrates the resilience of art," reads the report, "It does not change as much as the stock market, real estate or other asset classes. For example, in the United States art indices decreased by 4.5 per cent, while those of the S&P 500 plunged by approximately 37.5 per cent during the financial crisis of 2008. More pressingly, it illustrates that during periods of financial crises, the art market can self-regulate supply and demand. Therefore, the art market is not as sensitive to the global panic caused by economic instability and chaos as one might imagine."