The Art Advisory service is aimed at a public sensitive to art and the "art market", as an alternative and opportunity for diversification with respect to the canonical investment instruments, where Private Bankers with the help of art market experts 'art, they carry out an all-round consultancy, from the evaluation of the work of art and all the necessary activities either for a placement on the market or for its re-evaluation due 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 that for those who do not know its dynamics and rules, operating on this market without adequate precautions can mean, from an investment point of view, running very high risks.
The Bank proposes itself as an "umpire" of the art system. The art advisor must neither sell nor buy for his own interest in her, if he receives the assignment he has the task of guiding the collector client towards the best choice. 360° consultancy in wealth management today increasingly includes an art advisor, internal or external to the bank. The relationship with the customer is dutifully based on professionalism, discretion and trust. With art we enter the private sphere, whether it relates to inherited property or the expression of a recent wealth that has allowed the creation of a new collection. Often the art advisor is faced with a vast heritage, made up not only of canvases, sculptures, and precious objects, but also of glass, furniture, carpets and fine furnishings.
Knowing the history of a painting, giving it a correct commercial evaluation, arriving at attribution certainty, expanding, remodeling or disposing of a collection, restoring in the case of ancient works, providing for the inventory of assets and their insurance, their exhibition and transportation are among the core competencies of a banking art consultant.
The continuous evolution of the market in recent years, primarily in the contemporary art sector, has in fact significantly changed the reference parameters, bringing out an ever greater need for specialisation, professionalism and comparison for this type of service.
The art advisory departments of the banks provide advice on all fronts, but do not suggest diversifying a share of wealth into art. They prefer not to talk about investment as for most clients art is synonymous with ideal value. However, the number of private-investor clients is increasing and, in particular, preferences go to the modern and contemporary art segment.
From a survey of national and international credit institutions to verify the development of the service offered, general trends emerge: all have structured it with a team of art and market experts, some internally - such as Ubs which it even has several including art historians and economic and legal experts, Deutsche Bank Ag, Unicredit, Bnl-Bnp and Ing, – some relying on external consultants such as art advisors and auction house specialists. From this experience started by the most important realities, the new generation banks, ie those with independent consultancy, are organizing themselves precisely to offer the AA and luxury goods service, complementary to the financial service. The goal is common for all: through the inventory, the evaluation and the sale, the correct management of an art collection can generate interest.
The cataloging with exhaustive cards on the characteristics of the piece (dimensions, technique, attribution, provenance, estimate) accompanied by photographs and the certification of purchase represents the basis for correct management of the collection, for insurance protection and generational transmission. Often one of the main activities is linked to inheritance planning and the legal and fiscal management of the artistic heritage, in many cases through the establishment of foundations or trusts.
Similarly, there is a different approach also for investment funds in art, which in the future will increasingly have to exclude any form of speculative investment in favor of cautious management which aims above all at the capital's patrimonialisation.
Although the track record is still insufficient to consider them alternative investment instruments, if this is limited to art alone, then it becomes essential that these funds be completed with new complementary services, which would give the fund a much more competitive financial significance.
It can be said that compared to the previous model (2010-2014) when the financial market was very different from the current one and the service was aimed at the customer with a specific portfolio and not for the overall potential capital, since art served as capital to be relocated to funds, similar to speculative equity transactions. With the absence of this speculative circumstance, art has returned in recent years to be considered interesting for medium-term investments, even the modern, contemporary one which still arouses interest and important revaluations, follows a specialist procedure with obligatory passages which guarantee the work greater certainty of relocation. Here is the importance for banks to structure the service internally, with one or more internal specialists acting as a reference figure, from training to the definition of external collaborations, to total assistance to the banker who remains the only interlocutor with the customer.
The Art Advisory service is dedicated to those who see art as an opportunity for the diversified growth of their artistic and financial heritage.
