9 August 2012

How to Safely Invest in the Art Market

Art can be an exciting investment for people of all ages. While purchasing artwork may be a rewarding experience for most people, it can be difficult to understand how the value of artwork can change over time. In addition, certain types of artwork will increase or decrease in value based on cultural trends. The following guide provides simple tips and tricks on what to be aware of to safely invest in the art stock market.

Photo credit: annartist from morguefile.com

Investment challenges

While traditional investors can use a stock fraud lawyer to research the parties involved, and detect potential problems, it can be challenging for an individual art investor to determine if a piece of art is fraudulent. Fortunately, there are a number of art professionals that provide a service similar to a fraud attorney's, that will provide some in-depth research findings about the origin of the piece in question.

It’s important to understand that lots of famous artwork is fraudulent. In many cases, professionals can create forgeries that appear to be real. While some forgeries are obvious, it can be difficult to detect professional forgeries.

How Art Origin Is Researched

Art dealers will often use carbon dating to determine the age of a piece of artwork. Since carbon dating can accurately date an item to within 100 years, it can be a useful tool for determining the authenticity of a piece of antique art. However, it’s important to understand that some criminals will use older paints to create these pieces of art.

Where Art Forgeries Come From

It’s important to understand how the technology behind forgeries has improved over the past few decades. For example, modern forgeries are often the work of a large criminal group. It’s possible for art forgeries to include authentic elements from a variety of backgrounds. For example, many forgeries are manufactured with authentic materials from the time an artist would have painted.

Forgeries are often created through the use of imaging techniques. If a piece of artwork is stolen, criminals will often run it through a specialized laser scanner to build a database of its dimensions. With these dimensions, it’s possible for a criminal to accurately recreate a piece of art. While not common yet, some criminals will use 3D printers to produce artwork and sculptures for sale on the black market. After scanning a piece of art, creating a copy is as simple as pressing a button.

Sometimes Surprising Accomplices

In addition, it’s important to understand how art dealers can cooperate, either knowingly or unknowingly, with criminals to spread forgeries. Since forgeries are usually impossible to tell apart from a legitimate piece of art, the only way to know the authenticity of the art piece is by knowing its history. If artwork has passed through a grey market or a black market in its past, there’s a very high chance it may be a forgery.

Forgeries can be found of art paintings, sculptures, and many other antiquities. Since forgeries can be very difficult to detect, it’s important to only buy artwork from a reputable dealer. In addition, it’s essential to make sure that purchased artwork has a known history. If it’s not possible to determine the history of a piece of art, there’s a very good chance that piece of art could be a forgery.


Ann Bailey is an artist and contributing research writer for the stock fraud lawyer team of Page Perry, LLC in Atlanta, Georgia.  The firm specializes in all types of financial and product fraud law, and has recovered over one billion dollars in assets internationally for its clients.  Pursuit of investing in art stocks, mutual funds, and annuities is protected by the members of the law firm through diligent legal action including litigation and arbitration.

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