What are people's thoughts on art as investments

[Benko]

I know a husband and wife who run a small but upscale art gallery.  They are very honest and if you buy something from them  and EVER want your money back they will always buy the piece back for what you paid.  I trust their judgement and they have been around awhile.  I've bought a few pieces from them and my apt has enough art and I was wondering if it made any sense to buy some additional pieces as investments.

Thoughts?  Assume for the sake of this discussion that these people know what they are doing (they do).

Thanks for your time.

[MachineGhost]

Thoughts?  Assume for the sake of this discussion that these people know what they are doing (they do).

If its old master's paintings, sure, otherwise its just gambling...  or speculating on uptrending new master's.  You can also buy at wholesale instead of paying retail that galleries sell at if you utilize a buyer's agent.

[KevinW]

My personal experience with collectibles has been older relatives asking me to try to help them sell articles they bought years ago, and then being very disappointed with their fair market value. Now that I think about it, the same thing happened with my childhood baseball card collection. So I'm generally anti-collectibles.

I suppose they might work as a speculative VP-only play, though, if you really know your stuff.

[murphy_p_t]

James (Jim) Rickards has been recommending this...I think he's involved in a fund specializing in this.

[Tyler]

My personal opinion is that buying art is sorta like buying a house.  It's possible to make money on it,  but more realistically you should simply expect a good one to be a decent store of value and buy for your own satisfaction rather than thinking of it as an investment. 

[l82start]

unless art is your profession it seems risky, how, without great expertise can you tell what is a timeless Master piece and what is a flash in the pan over hyped art work?  unless you can afford known timeless masterpieces or really know art it seems like a big guessing game. even narrowing it down and collecting a specific genres of art such as native American requires some expertise to tell valuable art from tourist art. 
 i collect art but it is all stuff done by family members, i get plenty of pleasure out of it it looks great on my walls but i doubt it could be called an investment.

[MediumTex]

I would only buy art that you personally like.  If it goes up in value, that's just a bonus.

[AgAuMoney]

they will always buy the piece back for what you paid.  I trust their judgement and they have been around awhile.

If they have been around awhile already, how much longer will they be around?

What good is their "buy back" promise if they are no longer in business and nobody else wants your art?

Assuming that "buy back" promise is worth your ability to enforce the contract on someone who will pay (in other words, nothing) do you have any idea what the typical spread is on buying and selling artwork?  Horrendous comes to mind...  At least jewelry is typically only 50%-100% premium at purchase.  (Example, if you buy today for $X, and then you had to sell tomorrow on the open market, what fraction of $X would you receive?)

Art is to enjoy.

If you get some investment return on it, good for you.  Don't count it.

[Benko]

Thanks all I get it.