About ten years ago, I attended a friend’s wedding in the countryside. At the reception, I met a man who worked as a trader at Goldman Sachs. He was also an avid art collector. Later, as we continued to chat (and drink), he told me that his collecting had started out of passion. But he had quickly realised that London’s contemporary art scene was not only incredibly fun, but also a world where a well-connected and financially savvy person could make a lot of money. He knew how to play the game, and he won. But there are plenty of idiots who rushed in and failed exactly where the Goldman guy succeeded.
In 2015, when I had my first gallery and the profits to be made from reselling young art were as high as the first California gold rush, there was a collector in London who was buying up all the artworks he could find. He would suddenly appear, with shopping bags full of cash. Some of them were from Lidl. He roamed the art schools and emerging galleries of London, buying whatever he could. But he made a crucial mistake: he told us all his collection was his “pension”. As a result, gallery owners would only sell him works by artists they had less confidence in; no young gallery wants to see the work of their star artist auctioned. This is how markets implode and careers end.
Years after I met this man, he called me and said he wanted to cash in some of his pension. He sent me a spreadsheet. Over a three-year period, he had spent more than £100,000 on art. When I added up the current value, I realised that his collection was worth less than a third of what he had paid for it. No one had explained the rules to him and he had lost a lot.
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A final piece of wisdom
Don’t chase trends – it’s impossible to follow them. Find your own style. Ignore the NFTs and take the time to visit exhibitions instead. At events like the Venice Biennale, you’ll discover things you can’t keep in a free port: art that doesn’t sell but might spark a new curiosity.
A wise mentor once said to me, “Good artists show in good galleries.” It’s deceptively simple advice, but wise nonetheless. Only if you can afford it, if you love it, and if you’re prepared to keep it forever should you buy it. Collecting can be a joyful pursuit; investing in art, especially for people who are unconnected and clueless, rarely brings anything but anxiety, and there are much easier ways to make money. If you want to collect art, start with something you love. It only gets better from there.
All That Glitters (Profile, £20) by Orlando Whitfield is out now
