Old Stuff - #5

Howdy!

There's something out there for wannabe millionaires called The Forbes Newsletters. One of the suckers designed to part you from your money is called The Forbes Collector. It only costs $39/year. And apparently if you read it, you can learn such things as:

1. According to London's Art Market Research, prices for the top 2% of contemporary artists have risen 72% over the last three years.
2. A study at the New York University Stern School of Business revealed that the art market outperformed the S&P 500 over the most recent three, five and 50-year time periods by the annualized rates of 18.2%, 8.0% and 1.2%, respectively.
3. Many financial advisers recommend allocating 10-15% of your portfolio to investments in art.

If you have that much excess money to burn, give it to me, and I can tell you things like:

1. A three year comparison of market prices in the art world or elsewhere is the equivalent of buying a breakfast cereal because it says "New & Improved" on the box.
2. If over a 50 year period the art market only outperformed the S&P 500 by 1.2% then unless you have scads upon scads of cash that you don't care about anymore, it ain't worth the chance.
3. All art consultants insist that you love a piece of art before buying it, and if there is any appreciation in value, that's gravy on the cake.