Bringing Democracy To Art

Crowdfunding Will Not Only Allow Art Lovers To Own A 'part' Of The Painting But Could Also Boost India's Art Market

- Carol Goyal

LAST WEEK 25,000 STRANGERS came together in one of the first ever ‘crowd funded’ cash raises worldwide to buy a Pablo Picasso painting for 2 million Swiss francs (about 1.7 million Euros). None of them will get to hang the masterpiece on their living room wall, but each one of them will ‘own’ the art work nevertheless. The 1968 painting titled ‘Buste de mousquetaire’ (Musketeer Bust) was offered up on Swiss bargain site Qoqa through the issue of 40,000 shares, each at a price of 50 Swiss francs. Eventually, 25,000 art lovers paid up to grab a piece of the masterpiece’s ownership.

Fractional ownership of art is a new phenomenon.