Encouraging signs suggest strong recovery in the art market

"You are going to see some great prices in NY auction in May. The rare pieces are going to go through the roof and make prices that you wouldn't expect to see in the economic climate we're in."

Philip Hoffman of The Fine Art Group Fund he told Reuters in a recent interview. He is the founder-CEO of the famous art investment house. Hoffman added Chinese collectors would make a major impact on the contemporary & impressionist market.

The Mei Moses Art Index that tracks the value of marketable art has found a neat 5 percent fall in the return of its index in its first-quarter report for the year 2010. But there is no reason to worry. The co-founder of both Beautiful Asset Advisors & the index, Michael Moses, stated this was largely driven by a drop in a single category of art; pre-1950 American collecting. The rest of the categories had shown positive performance, led by post-war and Old Masters works, in the first quarter.

The report also pointed to encouraging signs of the beginning of recovery in the art market. It noted that the second half of the year 2009 witnessed ’a repairing of world wealth’ and there’s more of a world market for art these days than ever.’ Wedbush Sec. has already upgraded Sotheby's rating, pointing to a definite bounce back in art market. The reasons are many...

One among them, as experts expect is that stronger oil prices will free sizable amount of cash, thus boosting the Middle Eastern market in next few years. However, the Russian art market will remain unpredictable. Notably, the collectors are now more aware and have done their homework. They thus are more confident since the earlier days when they were relatively uninformed.