Art is an investment financially and for your soul.
Art is a great investment. You may say, "well of course you say that Tom Megalis you are a professional artist." True, but what other asset brings you daily joy and pleasure while still appreciating in value? Watches? To some degree yes, but owning art is another level of joy.
Art is tangible, art is emotional, art activates a space with color, texture and ideas, art creates dialogue, art is real, art is frozen history. Art is time captured in a frame or in a sculpture. I've always loved that about art. You can sit in front of Wyeth's Christians World and literally fall into that scene and stand at the same position Andrew Wyeth stood when he painted Christina's World in 1948. Wyeth is long gone but the painting is here frozen in time.
Okay so that's blue chip art. A dead artist with limited inventory, truly an investment. But what about the working artist of today, is that an investment? If you pick an artist correctly, one that is working consistently, selling consistently, doing high quality work, being collected by many, then absolutely that work is an asset and will increase in value over the years.
Sure it may be a long game, but in the meantime you and your family and friends get to enjoy that art in your, home or business. Art is not an investment that gets locked away in a dirty dark bank. Art gives back to you each and every day.
Art is an investment financially and for your soul.