• Philip Hoffman began his career as a CPA at KPMG, later became CFO and youngest board director at Christie’s, and eventually founded The Fine Art Group.
• His firm advises wealthy families across 28 countries on art transactions, valuations, education, and art-backed lending.
• Investable art includes high-value works, jewelry, vintage cars, and luxury items like Hermès handbags, while most antiques and collectibles fall outside this category.
• Investors can access art through funds, private credit against art, direct ownership, or syndication with others.
• Hoffman emphasizes that art buyers should use reputable advisors, much like when purchasing real estate, to avoid costly mistakes.
• A client once spent $4 million on 40 polo paintings by an unknown artist with no resale market, ultimately finding them worthless.
• Using an advisor costs a fraction of an artwork’s price but can prevent costly mistakes.
• Even seasoned collectors often misjudge valuations; in one example, most experts mistook a $1M Monet for a $10M Monet.
• Condition issues, provenance gaps, and theft risks make professional due diligence essential in high-value purchases.
• Current market conditions—with top-tier art down 20–30% from recent highs—make this one of the best times in decades to buy blue-chip works.
• Wealthy collectors often allocate about 5% of their portfolio to art, balancing enjoyment with investment.
• The black market exists, but high-profile stolen works are nearly impossible to sell through reputable channels.
• Damage usually devastates value, though rare cases like Banksy’s shredded artwork increased in worth due to notoriety.
• Mishandling in storage, shipping, or moving can ruin artworks, highlighting the importance of professional logistics.
• Over decades, disciplined art investors with good advisors typically achieve strong compounded returns comparable to or exceeding equities.