Strong growth of Italian art in London: the Italian Sale "beaten" by Sotheby's and Christie's went from a total of £5 million in 1999/2000 to £43 million in 2015. Italian works, especially those from the 60s and '70s, are an increasingly profitable investment, as well as a safe haven in a period of high volatility, which however require careful management through expert consultants who take care of managing and enhancing the art collections.
This is what emerged during the CBA Studio Legale e Tributario conference “Works of Art in Italy – Investment Opportunities and Protection Tools”, which was attended by prestigious experts in the sector to explore the market for works and art collections.
The architect Laura Garbarino, Senior Specialist Post-War and Contemporary Art, Christie's Italia, illustrating how the birth and continuity of the Italian Sale has created ever greater interest in Italian art at an international level, declared "The first Italian Sale they were held in 1999-2000 in London by the two main auction houses Sotheby's and Christie's and rose from a total of 5 million pounds up to 43 million pounds last year. The strong point of Italian art is the quality of the production of the 60s and 70s and the fact that it has been considerably undervalued in the past”.
Nicola Canessa Partner of CBA Studio Legale e Tributario, examined the legal part in depth, highlighting that "the so-called "art law" evidently encompasses various branches of law in a transversal way, from commercial law to administrative law, from civil law to criminal law . We have decided here to talk about a particular aspect of the protection of works of art by briefly comparing the peculiarities of the Foundation, as a traditional institution of our legal system, and of the trust as an Anglo-Saxon law institution now fully recognized in our legal system . We also brought to the attention of those present 3 cases of trust application with or without beneficiaries, in order to concretely demonstrate the direct application of this institution in this sector”.
Domenico Filipponi, Head of Art Advisory, UniCredit, who dealt with "Collecting between passion and investment, opportunities and risks of the art market", declared "As an advisor in a Bank, the relationship with the Client is aimed at advising on Collecting starting from the Client's basic interest in diversifying his investments. The Customer's passion is a fundamental part, the Bank's role goes beyond the Customer's completely personal needs but evaluates the goodness of the final investment with questions that are related to an evaluation (due diligence) of the work, verifies the lawful origin, the authenticity, the possibility of trade abroad, etc. All factors that affect the economic value of the work. The Bank is an "intermediate" figure in the market, and not an intermediary, as a partner and consultant to the Client for important investments in order to have as objective a reading of the investment as possible".
Alessandro Guerrini – Head of Development, Open Care instead tackled the theme "Conserving, managing, enhancing works and art collections: services for collection management", highlighting that "the point of view of Open Care is that of those who manages, conserves and enhances works and art collections. Open Care supports the collector or the person who for various reasons owns an artistic heritage in the stages of purchase, sale, deposit, handling and restoration of the work as well as in the preparatory due diligence stage for the purchase of a work of art. The intervention will represent the complexity of all these activities, emphasizing how the management of these aspects must necessarily take place with the help of specialist skills and professionalism”.
Finally Giorgio Orlandini, Senior Associate of CBA, underlined that "art, above all modern and contemporary art and artainment (a new sector that aims to relate art and entertainment), is increasingly considered an asset refuge compared to the classic forms of investment that today have to deal with negative interest rates and fluctuating stock market trends. The number of private collectors in the world and the value of art in the portfolios of family wealth managers has grown exponentially. Art therefore moves huge financial flows, both domestic and international, feeding both the specific sector and savers. A regulatory intervention would therefore be desirable which, in the wake of the art bonus (made permanent relief with the 2016 Stability Law), would facilitate or, at least not penalize from a tax point of view (mostly linked to indirect taxation, VAT and customs duties) imports and investment in art. To this end, there are increasingly frequent rumors about raising the taxes on inheritance and donations in Italy which should bring the currently favorable taxation to European levels. From this point of view, the investment in art in the medium/long term, which is inherent in the passion for investing in art, presupposes the correct assessment of the issue of generational handover to guarantee the passage of the works, and therefore of one's investment, to the heirs. The use of the trust guarantees protection of the investment assets and also allows efficient management from a fiscal point of view”.
