For love, not money

This year may have marked the end of brag-art’, bought merely to show off one’s wealth. It’s time for a return to looking for connoisseurship, beauty and taste

- Huon Mallalieu

COULD this have been the year when the notion of art as investment began to lose credibility? At the least, could 2024 have been the point when its most pernicious iteration, that art can be considered only in terms of investment, became untenable? If so, then the first effects may be felt in what might be termed ‘brag-art’, the ‘I don’t know much about art, but you know how much I paid for it’, such as Warhol screenprints and Koons balloons.

Last month, at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, Warhol’s set of 10 Campbell’s Soup II screen- prints estimated to HK$650 million was one of the few bought-in lots. Similarly, in a London online session of Banksy screenprints, exactly half were unsold. At the more opaque end of the market, one cannot speculate on what the effects might be on unseen stocks of art held in free port warehouses, but it would be pleasing to think of owners bringing things out and learning to enjoy them.

The problem with contemporary art for investors is that it does not remain contemporary for very long. If it is strong enough to be remembered at all, the emerging, cutting edge and challenging will inevitably soon become mainstream and, once there is a secondary market, top dealers can no longer control supply through waiting lists. The best will be classed as ‘Modern Masters’, but even they may well suffer a period of eclipse, if not oblivion: artistic fashion ever rotates; when young, we despise what our parents revered and we often rediscover the idols of our grandparents. As I have mentioned recently (Art market, November 13), sculptured busts seem to be returning to favour after long neglect.