The Art Trading Fund, a hedge fund that trades in fine art, says that renowned UK art collector and advertising tycoon Charles Saatchi will advise it on contemporary art purchases, says Bloomberg.

Chris Carlson and Justin Williams, founders of the Guernsey-registered fund, said that Mr Saatchi will help them select works by western artists as well as from the emerging markets of India and west Asia.

Mr Carlson told WealthBriefing in an interview last December that the fund aimed to raise $98.6 million by the end of 2007.

The establishment of the fund has come at a time when art – along with assets like antiques, wine and old musical instruments – has attracted interest from investors.

The fund will pay the Saatchi Gallery a percentage of the profits it makes from works acquired through the gallery, according to the agreement signed in April, Mr Carlson said.

Managers of art investment funds, which buy and sell a pool of works for a set fee and a share of any profit made, have been promoting art as an alternative asset class in the last five years.

So far, the London-based Fine Art Fund, which has attracted $110 million of assets under management since it started in 2004, is the only one of these vehicles to remain conspicuously active in the West.