Corporate looking to offload their artistic riches

Corporations rather concerned about the falling bottom line are looking at their office walls, literally. Over last few decades, the world's wealthiest companies and banks have created art collections, which are the envy of many leading museums. However, some are now keen to sell off their precious possessions, adorning office walls and boardrooms, to pay off creditors.

The category of such sellers includes Lehman Brothers. The collapsed bank’s multimillion-dollar art collection boasts works by Gerhard Richter, Damien Hirst and others. It’s set to go under the hammer. Saul Ingram, The European corporate art services head at Sotheby's, has been quoted as saying in an AP report:

"Over the last five or six years we've dealt with more and more corporate as well as private clients. Obviously there have been economic changes in the last couple of years, and I think that has heralded a change in attitudes — that these collections need to be trimmed, to focus on quality."

Top companies around the world are sitting on immense artistic riches the public seldom get to see. A news report by Jill Lawless of AP elaborates:

“The JP Morgan Chase Art Collection, founded by David Rockefeller, has over 30,000 pieces, including works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Cindy Sherman and Andy
Warhol. In Britain, the banks RBS, HSBC and Barclays all have large caches of art — unlike BP PLC that despite drawing environmentalists’ protests accusing it of using art sponsorships to whitewash its oil-stained image, does not have a large corporate collection of its own.”

The private and corporate collections head at Christie' points to a rise in the corporate side of the business. Cathy Elkies expects the trend will continue. The art expert adds, "Organizations in some cases are editing and refocusing their art collections. Some others are looking to divest themselves of their art offerings completely."