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What It Takes to Build a $100 Million Art Collection

>Image Credit: John Maynard Keynes's admission ticket to the auction of the Edgar Degas estate (Paris, 1918), King's College Archive, University of Cambridge, the Keynes Papers, PP/70/9, Jason Zweig photo, reproduced by kind permission of the Provost and Scholars, King's College, Cambridge
‘King’s College, Cambridge. Keynes Papers, PP/70/9’ or whatever the ref. no. is, which you can read off the top right hand corner in your photo (but probably not in the newspaper). And if you have space, ‘Reproduced by kind permission of the Provost and Scholars, King’s College, Cambridge’.

A hundred years ago this week, the most influential economist of the 20th century began assembling what became one of the best collections of modern art then in private hands.

Every investor hoping to diversify a conventional portfolio with nontraditional assets can learn from the collecting career of John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946).

Wealthy investors often say they keep about a tenth of their net worth in art, antiques, fine wines and other collectibles. Research has suggested that the returns on such assets may beat cash, bonds and even gold over the long term, although the costs of trading — and holding — them can significantly reduce net results….

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This article was originally published on The Wall Street Journal.

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Further reading

David Chambers, Elroy Dimson and Christophe Spaenjers, “Art as an Asset: Evidence from Keynes the Collector“

Elroy Dimson and Christophe Spaenjers, “Investing in Emotional Assets“

Ann Dumas et al., The Private Collection of Edgar Degas (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997), freely downloadable PDF