Space at the top: luxury property in London
19 October 2020
Formula E: motor racing’s cleaner future
20 October 2020Thrills of the Chase
The market for sporting art is broad and often eclectic. It can also provide some interesting investment potential
F
rom the glamour of horseracing and the thrill of the hunt, to the deserts and plains of Africa, people are finding that sporting and wildlife art is an exciting and eclectic genre in which to invest.
The market for sporting art is broad and often eclectic. It can also provide some interesting investment potential
F rom the glamour of horseracing and the thrill of the hunt, to the deserts and plains of Africa, people are finding that sporting and wildlife art is an exciting and eclectic genre in which to invest.
It is a category that encompasses a rich variety of subject matter with artworks fetching from just a few hundred pounds to, in the case of equine artist George Stubbs, over £20 million.
And it is not just paintings, watercolours and prints that are coming under the hammer in Britain’s best known salerooms either – it is bronzes, ceramics, glassware jewellery and silverware too, with subjects covering everything from gun dogs to deerstalking, hunting, fishing, horse racing and shooting.
Market research firm Datamonitor believe in the past five years high net worth individuals have reacted to the uncertainty in global financial markets by investing in art.
‘The economic crisis was disastrous for the world’s wealthiest people,’ says analyst Susan Ellis. ‘Stock markets experienced dramatic falls in value, while alternative investments in hedge funds and private equity that were closely related to them nose-dived too.’
For many of the world’s wealthiest people investing in art has been both an interesting and fail-safe method of protecting their capital.
Sporting art has shown itself to be one area of the art world that has been bomb-proof since the global economic meltdown of 2007-08. Of course, many moneyed people in the UK love field sports and horse racing, so they have long combined this love with speculative investment in this branch of the art world.
While many of the old masters, such as Italian Renaissance painters and post-impressionists such as Van Gogh, have been beyond the wallets of all but a tiny minority, most collectible sporting artists can be bought at auction for thousands, or hundreds of thousands of pounds. Get it right and you can own a beautiful artwork that will provide a healthier return in the years to come than a portfolio of stocks and shares.
‘The value of my pictures has easily outperformed the FTSE 250 in the past five to seven years.’
Robert Korzinek, a fine art expert at insurance company Hiscox, says the market for English sporting pictures has held up pretty well in the past few years.
‘Demand is focused on a broad section of high net worth UK collectors and has shown much greater resilience than the market for large Georgian pieces of brown (mahogany) furniture, with which it shares a buying demographic.’
Korzinek adds that supply is driven mainly by estate clearances, typically prompted by death, debt and divorce.
‘Major artists from the genre, such as Sir Alfred Munnings, can sell for millions of dollars, but the majority of collectors are buying pictures for less than £10,000,’ he says.
One such collector is Philip Martin, a fund manager who, when he is not working in the Square Mile, spends most of his time on racecourses in England and France.
‘I started my collection of horse racing prints and paintings for two reasons: firstly as a natural extension of my love of the turf, and secondly, to diversify my investments. I have property, I have a share portfolio, and a pension – but I didn’t have any art.’
Not only has Martin found that he has derived enormous pleasure from his collection, but that the value of his art pieces has outperformed each of his other asset classes.
‘Rather than picking a hunting picture that you have a personal connection with, go for a painting of one of the more famous hunts, such as the Quorn.’
Not only has Martin found that he has derived enormous pleasure from his collection, but that the value of his art pieces has outperformed each of his other asset classes.
‘Well, the value of my house in London has obviously roared up in the past 12 months, but I’d say that as I’ve bought well, the value of my pictures has easily outperformed the FTSE 250 in the past five to seven years.’
Martin primarily buys at auction – at Bonhams, Christie’s and Sotheby’s – but also loves to visit specialist galleries. ‘I have found you’re more likely to pick up a bargain at auction though,’ he says.
Dead artists such as Archibald Thorburn and Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe, as well as living artists such as Rodger McPhail, dominate the scene at the moment, but what about undiscovered talent?
Martin says there are still a few artists that have not yet met their full market potential although for now he’s keeping his counsel regarding who they are.
‘It’s not a massive area of study and you can become an expert relatively easily. Get the catalogues, follow the auctions and visit a few galleries and you will know where to put your money in no time,’ he says.
Browsing the catalogues of the country’s best-known auction houses has long been the most effective way of snaring a bargain.
Miranda Grant, managing director of Bonhams in Edinburgh, which has a sporting art sale scheduled for 11 June, believes the key to buying well at auction is to go for something that has mass appeal.
‘Rather than picking a hunting picture that you have a personal connection with, go for a painting of one of the more famous hunts – ones with royal connections such as the Beaufort and the Quorn. These will be far more interesting commercially.’
Dead artists such as Archibald Thorburn and Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe, as well as living artists such as Rodger McPhail, dominate the scene at the moment
Grant adds that it is wise to pick a field sport that is still legal in the UK. ‘Few people want paintings of scenes depicting an otter hunt nowadays,’ she says.
What gave the sporting art market a real boost three years ago was when a painting called Gimcrack On Newmarket Heath (1765) by George Stubbs, the most famous equine artist of them all, sold for £22.4m at auction house Christie’s.
The price was a new record for the artist and sources in the art market suggest a sort of ‘glass ceiling’ was broken by the sale.
Matthew Paton, a director of Christie’s, says Gimcrack was one of Stubbs’s masterpieces and possibly the greatest horse racing picture that exists.
‘It was actually the third most valuable old master ever sold, so at that moment Stubbs joined a very small group who’ve sold for over £20m and that includes Rubens, Rembrandt, Pontormo and Turner,’ he says.
‘It was groundbreaking for the sporting art world – we had never seen paintings in this sector command such high prices before.’
Another reason why investors decide to play in this market is that it could be very good news for their children.
Due to the long-term nature of building a treasured art collection, it could be those who inherit your estate that benefit from your foresight.
This is confirmed by a collector called Philip Astor, a London-based barrister who inherited one of the world’s largest collections of paintings by Archibald Thorburn, a Scottish artist and bird illustrator whose works now command big sums.
Astor says he always has one eye on the auction houses to see how the market for Thorburn’s work is doing and has been pleasantly surprised by recent sales. A sporting art sale at Bonhams in London last year included a large number of Thorburn’s watercolours, the majority of which sold for between £20,000-£50,000 each when 10 years ago they would have sold for perhaps a quarter of this.
‘It’s almost embarrassing how much my father’s Thorburn collection has increased in value over the years,’ says Astor.
Words: Staff
