No Limits Ladies.com

I do like my pretty things and some of those pretty things include art, original paintings and sculptures. They aren't inexpensive but are they a wise investment?

As there are indices for stocks, there is also an index for art. The Mei Moses Fine Art Index takes the original selling prices for established artists' pieces and compares them to current selling prices, deriving a return on investment. Over the past 50 years, this return has been north of 10% annually. Impressive.

Or is it?

In my opinion, this is the equivalent of looking at the return on Microsoft stock based on a pre-IPO price or the cost of Bill Gates' 1975 startup. In hindsight, Microsoft was a great bet but thousands of Microsoft-like startups didn't make it off the ground.

Our startup artists haven't made it off the ground either.

The hubby and I are fairly new collectors (the past 10 years). We buy directly from the artists (to support the artists, as with companies and the stock market, artists don't make anything from the resale market). We tend to buy new artists. We love the paintings, we're proud to own them but thus far, our financial return has been negative (for some, I'd be lucky to get the value of the frame back).

As with stocks, art lovers are more likely to get a positive return from the established artists (the blue chips) than the up and comers (the penny stocks). The likelihood of a big return goes up with knowledge and savvy also. But for the hubby and I, we look at art as an indulgence rather than an investment.