Is Art A Viable Investment?

Charles Paikert

10 November 2025

Art as an asset class is in the spotlight this month, as works by Picasso, Monet and Rothko are expected to reach headline grabbing prices during Sotheby’s and Christie’s annual fall auctions in New York City.

Despite all the attention, prestige and eyebrow-raising prices associated with the art market, experts at the Deloitte bi-annual Art & Finance Conference in New York last week argued that art shouldn’t be considered as an investment at all.

“If you go into with an investment mindset, you’re probably going to get burned,” Betsy Bickar, director of art advisory wealth for Citi Private Bank, said. “It’s not a great idea to think of art as an investment,” agreed Jeffrey Horvitz, CEO of Moreland Wealth Services Corporation.

While works by famous artists may attract attention by selling for hundreds of millions of dollars, art market sales don’t follow a "gaussian," or normal, distribution pattern, Horvitz told Family Wealth Report. “The high end is not indicative of what 99 per cent of the rest of the art market does,” he said.

Throughout the conference speakers cited a litany of caveats about the art market: it’s opaque, illiquid, highly subjective, largely unregulated, inefficient, relies on questionable data and is very costly. “If the stock market had to operate the way the art market does, there wouldn’t be a stock market,” Horvitz maintained.

Navigating a precarious market
Nonetheless, global art market sales exceeded $57 billion last year on over 40 million transactions, according to Art Basel and UBS. And wealthy individuals continue to buy – and families continue to inherit – art, collectibles and art works, accounting for around $2.5 trillion of wealth in the US, according to Deloitte’s just released Art & Finance Report.

So how exactly should buyers and sellers navigate such a precarious market?

Experts on the conference’s “Is art a viable investment vehicle?” panel largely agreed that buyers should put passion ahead of profits.

Art has underperformed the S&P 500 over the last two decades, and returns are steadily declining, according to the Deloitte report, sliding over 12 per cent downward last year, according to Art Basel/UBS.

“We tell clients art is where you spend your money, not where you make your money,” Bickar told conference attendees. “Get involved with the art community. Become a connoisseur. That’s how you grow value in a collection.”

Buyers should consider art as a “passion asset” and pay close attention to an artwork’s title, authenticity and the secondary market before purchasing, said Lars Nittve, a former museum director and chair of Arte Collectum’s investment committee.

Glenn Fuhrman, co-managing partner of TruArrow Investment Partners, defended art as an investment. “It makes a lot of sense to me,” he said, noting that art is a “differentiated” asset class that has a very favorable supply/demand imbalance of high quality works.

Buyers should fill a Venn diagram with three intersecting vectors before making a purchase, Horvitz said: Do they really like the artwork; do experts believe it has high quality; and is the price reasonable? “Don’t think about what someone else will pay,” he advised. “Bid only what your budget allows.”

Role of wealth managers and family offices
Wealth managers and family offices also have a critical role to play.

UHNW clients allocate an average of around 10 per cent of their wealth to art and collectibles, and over half of family offices surveyed by Deloitte reported that clients are asking for art-related services. In addition, art is playing an increasingly important role in estate planning, next-gen considerations, philanthropy and as collateral for lending.

Next-gen clients are increasingly seeking expert advice on how to use family art collections to support artists, fund institutions and drive social impact, according to the Deloitte report.

Citi Private Bank is advising family offices on how to educate next-gen family members on the “why, what and how” behind the family’s collection, said Alexandre Monnier, global head of the bank’s family office group, and the former president of Family Office Exchange. “Is the collection part of the family’s identity and legacy, or is it transactional?”

Art, which too often falls out of the family office’s purview, according to Monnier, should instead be part of the family’s investment policy statement. Art is also an ideal opportunity to give agency to next-gen family members, particularly those who aren’t attracted to the business or finance side.

“Next-gen family members shouldn’t just be a link in the chain,” Monnier said. “Family offices should designate a next-gen member with an interest in art to become an expert, inform others about the collection and be a good steward. It’s an opportunity for them to do something relevant for their generation, similar to philanthropy.”