With this week, the journey begins in the banks that offer the Art Advisory service, that market segment aimed at an audience sensitive to art and to the "art market", as an alternative and opportunity for diversification with respect to the canonical instruments of investment. The private bankers, with the help of numerous art market experts, carry out all-round advice, from the evaluation of the work of art and all the necessary activities either for a placement on the market or for its due revaluation to a precise program of care and assistance.
Art is to be considered to all intents and purposes a true alternative asset class and its market represents an interesting and full of opportunities to explore for those who want to diversify their investments.
However, the art market is also a very particular and specialized reality and, for those who do not know its dynamics and rules, operating on this market without adequate precautions can mean, from an investment perspective, running very high risks .
We asked Maria Cristina Ragazzoni, head of the Art Advisory service of Banca Aletti, to explain to us how this service is carried out and its importance in the Private area.
FIRSTonline: Since when does your Institute have an Art Banking service?
Banca Aletti began making the Art Advisory service available to its customers in 2002.
FIRSTonline: Who does this service come from?
The service is performed by internal resources - with specific skills - and also makes use of the collaboration of a large team of independent external experts.
FIRSTonline: Who is it for?
The service is reserved for our Private customers, in order to provide support for the management, protection and transmission of artistic assets, as a complement to the management service of their financial assets with us.
FIRSTonline: When is consultancy, sale, purchase preferred or is it simply limited to consultancy?
Art advisory provides for a very wide range of services, ranging from consultancy on a work of art that is offered for purchase by the customer's usual counterparties, to the search for works on the market, the sale, management, protection , inventories, estimates and successions.
FIRSTonline: In which investment bracket does the typical customer fall, 10-50 thousand EUR, 50-100 thousand EUR, over 100 thousand EUR
Generally, customers entering the art world start with acquisitions worth less than 50.000 euros, while collectors can also range over much higher values.
FIRSTonline: Are there any fees?
Our service is free, as it represents a natural complement to the management of the total assets of our Private customers, declined in all its components: financial instruments, company investments, real estate, art.
FIRSTonline: Do you use specialist consultants at auction houses, if so which ones? or do you also make use of different figures, gallery owners, art advisors, curators, etc.?
We make use of an open architecture, continuously monitored and, if necessary, implemented for each new specialist requirement. With this in mind, we regularly collaborate with the departments of the major international and national auction houses, but also with gallery owners, specialists and professionals in the sector (restorers, insurance companies, vaults, transporters, etc.).
FIRSTonline: Today, auction houses are seeing a drop in interest and sales in Italian art, even historicized art, first ancient art and now also modern and contemporary art, in your opinion art is still to be recommend as a safe investment?
Like all investments, even acquisitions in the artistic field – which despite presenting the uniqueness of usability and aesthetic gratification – must respond to quality and sustainability criteria. The great interest in modern and contemporary Italian art (the Italian Sales) demonstrates that there are Italian artists with great potential for appreciation and growth. A careful selection of quality works represents an investment with excellent opportunities to defend the invested capital, as well as the satisfaction of an aesthetic research.
FIRSTonline: It seems that the overseas art market (USA, CHINA, HK) is more successful, or rather, let's say that it is much more popular than the local one. Can your service be a concrete point of reference for this new need that is emerging? if so how?
It is an incontrovertible fact that the focus of the art market has shifted towards the Far East and emerging countries, following the new buyers and the new riches and satisfying their requests. However, for the time being the majority of Italian collectors remain faithful to European or North American aesthetic canons, reserving a still limited curiosity for Asian or South American artists. Obviously we are able to support our customers on all international markets also because the globalization of the market will increasingly lead to an expansion of the markets and the number of collectors as well as to a growing diffusion of new purchasing methods unrelated to physical presence, such as participation in web auctions.
FIRSTonline: Conclusions….
The democratization of art, i.e. the expansion of markets, artists and collectors on an international basis, has led on the one hand to a greater diffusion of data (for example the quotations and the trend of an artist) and on the other the need to be able to count on consultants and independent experts who can support the collector in his choices. Banca Aletti's Art Advisory service receives much appreciation and we register a significant increase in requests, as our customers have understood the importance of independence and transparency for a correct approach to a complex and often self-referential market. Our attention to the correct management of the purchase (documentation, authentications, provenance) and the enhancement of the works of art (conservation, cataloguing) represents a concrete safeguard of the investment of every small or large collector.
Banca Aletti is the Private & Investment Bank of the Banco Popolare Group, with strong territorial roots, guaranteed by the 35 Private Units in the area, in synergy and collaboration with the commercial banks of the Group. The service model adopted, dedicated to the most sophisticated private and corporate customers, makes it possible to combine the confidential and personalized approach of a historic financial boutique with the innovation capabilities of a leading investment bank. Clients can benefit from the technical skills and distinctive services provided by qualified consultants, in order to better manage not only traditional financial issues, but assets in their global complexity. In particular, Banca Aletti's model, characterized by the convergence of a single product factory structure and commercial network, pays the utmost attention to family and business dynamics, often intertwined with each other, in an integrated approach to the family business. The offer dedicated to the customer therefore consists of asset management services, advanced portfolio consultancy, investment advisory services, structuring of dedicated financial instruments, art advisory, real estate advisory and asset protection services provided by Aletti Fiduciaria and Aletti Trust.
