The relationship between art and property

The relationship between art and property is a complicated, yet exciting one. Not only is it to do with the respective markets, but it involves the tricky link between finance and emotion. Both property and art are tied up in the aesthetic preferences of the potential buyer and the type of money they are willing to spend. Where property sales have spiked, the art market has been notably impacted (particularly noticeable with the influx of international property buyers over the last decade).

Investments in passion including, but not limited to, artworks, have become more common amongst high net worth individuals in the wake of an unstable stock market and political climate. Such individuals perceive these assets as more secure, but it’s more complex than that. Investment artworks provide the buyer with a sense of fulfilment that goes beyond the knowledge that their money was spent wisely. The procurement of art, whether for your own property or to sell a property, has an added intrinsic value.

As the Financial Times reported a few years after the financial crash in 2008, the art and financial markets appear to possess mutual exclusivity. For example, Damien Hirst’s two-day sale at Sotheby’s London saw £111m worth of sales the same day that the Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy.

This is intrinsically linked to the property market via the phenomenon of buyers filling new homes or show homes with art. The embellishment of a property through hanging art has various goals. For example, property developers use a curated selection of artworks a dress-to-sell tactic, helping to encapsulate a lifestyle that buyers aspire to achieve.

open image in gallery

Knight Frank recently published a statement claiming that the relationship between luxury homes and art is obvious, and that the careful placement of artwork by the likes of Hirst or Warhol can be the finishing touch that prompts a prospective buyer to make an offer.

So too does the prime property agent claim that, occasionally, buyers have been known to purchase all the artwork displayed within the dressed-to-sell property. Depending on the worth of the collection, in some of the country’s most luxurious developments and homes, this extra cost can rival the deal on the property alone.

Cost equivalents in art and property can also be reversed when you consider the phenomenon across the millennia of building properties to suit pre-existing art collections. From the Florentine Medicis to the property developers of the modern day, homes are often designed with the art collection of the buyer in mind.

Ultra-high net worth individuals are looking for more than just a great location and high-specification finishes when it comes to buying property. Extensive wall space for artwork is one of the top requirements amongst buyers in the luxury property market.

Trilbey Gordon, the head of interior design at Londonewcastle, says, “At Londonewcastle we are constantly inspired by all the different movements in art. Bauhaus, Cubism, Memphis, Modernism. We love Brancusi, Ettore Sottsass and Josef Hoffmann and the way they seamlessly cross over from sculpture and art to furniture to architecture and property.”

So, whether you’re filling a home with art to help it sell, or specifying a property to house your art collection, the relationship between art and property is symbiotic, complex, emotional and financial.