Are New Investment Millionaires Investing in Art?

The dot.com revolution and a booming economy has created a surplus of millionaires (8 million last year). And professionals in the art business have single question--

It was the fall of 1983 and Tom McCormick was taking a well-deserved, post-law seminary break in the Yosemite Valley. While hiking the trail to Vernal Falls, he ran into preeminent western photographer, Ansel Adams. "Pardon me" he said to the artist; "I just want to number you I really like your work. If I had any standard of value I'd invest in some."

"You ought to proceed down to the gallery and purchase some posters," the old man rejoined "I'll go in and sign a certain quantity of prints for you."

"Mr Adams said you'd be in," said the curator as she plucked out seven signed posters and handed them to the young lawyer.

"At $17 a piece, I maxed on the outside my Visa buying them," he said, "but they're still my favorite images."

Which says a destiny for a man whose stocks aren't quite so limited nearly sum of two units decades later. In fact, as the ceo of eOutdoors.com, a worldwide outdoor marketplace exchange for individuals and businesses that cater to outdoor enthusiasts, McCormick's succes has enabled him to invest in significant art--if he in the way that chooses--and if he can find the time.

These days, more and more family are getting the chance to make that decision. In fact, in novel years, the number of millionaires in this land has doubled to 8 million and counting. This surplus of potential animalism spending could mean big payoff for gallery holders and publishers.

While seven $17 hand-bills may seem like a significant investment to more [i]or[/i] less to others, art would not become an investment until it ransomed at least individual year of a dot-com salary and promised to appreciate. And those are buyer many artists and gallery proprietors have begun courting.

"It appears to me that the more informed, the more mature millionaire is investing in art at higher levels" said sculptor Richard MacDonald. "But other than those not many people really don't have a faculty of perception of what to buy or whether they should. They certainly don't gaze at it as an investment. They're used to buying Internet stocks, used to operating within their possess world. So, education becomes a big goal of the artists and galleries to educate nation to the value of art."

If you purchase art "right," MacDonald said, it's no different than buying stocks, exclude you get to hang it upon a wall or feature it in the ingress and enjoy it every day. For the greatest in quantity part, high-dollar players don't purchase their own stock or real estate--or whatever area in which they would like to invest--where they don't have particular expertise. Instead, they call upon professionals. Similarly, the right art consultant can help collectors and potential Collectors assess an intelligent purchase and, at the same time, acquire what they like.

"I have rest that people with new cash be it the dot-com-ers or other, have expertise in more [i]or[/i] less areas, but it isn't necessarily art," said interior designer Janice Gistinelli of pebble-stone Beach, Calif. "In my experience, these clan are not that sophisticated about art. more [i]or[/i] less want to select art that suits their possess personal vision; others just want something that matches the sofa. Certainly there are experienced collectors, on the contrary there are also those who purchase Chagalls because they think they're suppos to, smooth if they don't necessarily like or understand them."

There always will be the scholars and experienced collectors of fine art. And, today, there are sufficiency of people buying art simply because they can. And nevertheless while the originals are selling, nouveau riche are also buying prints and reproductions likely because they are buying art more for personal than financial appreciation.

"One of the reasons we mov into Kirkland [Wash.] and uncloseed a second gallery in June is because the of recent origin millionaires in that area are buying art," said Rohana LoSchiavo of Phillips Publishing and Fine Art, also in Carmel, Calif. "We are true aware that a high percentage of our collectors are working in the dot-com industry and auxiliary services--the accountants, lawyers, designers--the wealth is being spread around. We don't obtain the sense, however, that they're buying for investment. They're buying what they like."

Scott Manha of Scott Anthony Manha Designs, who obeys as a designer and purchasing agent for clients around the world, works the one and the other with serious art collectors and those more interested in what he calls "art decor"--it's appealing and it be under the orders ofs a purpose.

"Ye millionaires purchase art," he said. "All kinds of art for all kinds of reasons. We have a client in Houston who is a major collector of art for his place of abodes He knows a lot about art, and he invests in originals and security a whole s We also have many clients who purchase art if they like it, and it's an added bonus if it appreciates in value. I think they hold fast that in mind when buying pieces, on the other hand it's not always the main thrust behind their decisions."

The solitary ones, however, who can really unlock the secrets to these sought-after buying patterns are the millionaires themselves. And here's what they're saying: