Investments, cash, inflation and "meltdown" are all the talk at this time. A recent article in the London Guardian stated that with cash in the bank paying one per cent a year, and with a four per cent a year inflation, one was losing three per cent a year with cash. It was suggested that investing in artwork would better that figure any day.
And looking at a painting on your wall is prettier than looking at a depressing file of your holdings. In Trinidad, investing in art has proven to be a sound medium to long-term investment as evidenced in two sales of complete private collections of artworks last year. The two sales realised over $2 million, sales were swift, and if more works were available, they too would have sold.As an example, in 2004 I sold my collection of five Isaiah James Boodhoo paintings for which I got $320,000. This money was invested in mutual funds, now worth some $211,000. The paintings today would fetch about $500,000.
A client recently called me to view a 2002 Boodhoo painting. She would only sell it to me at 100 per cent markup (in 7.5 years). I immediately paid cash knowing it was a very sound investment.
But investing in art has to be with the eye, the heart and with a sound "name" artist. Leading names today, in my opinion, would be Cazabon, Boodhoo, Lisa Chu Foon and Hingwan followed by Holder, Chang, Atteck and Alladin (of the deceased artists), and Clarke, Hinkson, Sundiata, Harris, Glasgow, O'Connor, Sheppard and Sylvester (living artists).
More rare are works by Marcelio, Basso, Stollmeyer, and Isaac, but works by them are so rare that to establish a "history of sales" that justifies pricing is difficult. It is said that original paintings in Trinidad are overpriced. On the contrary, compared to prices realised regionally in Barbados and Jamaica, we are far behind; internationally, we are positively cheap. For example, 101 Art Gallery has the exclusive rights to sell works from the Boscoe Holder archive. We make respectable sales locally, but our major markets are in Germany, the US, Australia and Barbados (where they sell for two to three times the TT price).
Bos-coe's works in storage number some 100 signed paintings–that is the end of the stock–and sadly we in Trinidad are losing out on this potential for investment as most works sell abroad. Recently Boscoe Holder's works have been exhibited for sale in Berlin and London at galleries that represent the likes of Alice Neel, Peter Doig and Chris Ofili. This week a show opened at The Gallery on The Green in London with drawings by Boscoe Holder, Christian Holder and Oliver Messle. A Boscoe painting purchased in 2004 would double your money today.
Clico is much in the news today. Annually, it has purchased 12 paintings for its collection and its calendar. Over the years Clico has purchased 12 works each by Carlisle Chang, Boscoe Holder and Isaiah James Boodhoo that may well turn out to be amongst its most sound (if small) investments.
Michel Jean Cazabon (1813-1888) is perhaps our most respected and know artist, both locally and internationally. An oil painting of his created a sensation at Christies Auction house in London where it sold about 12 years ago (far higher than the estimate) at some $750,000 (including commission and vat there-on).
But that is a top-of-the-line investment. At the sale and exhibition "Precious Paintings From Private Collections" at 101 Gallery opening tomorrow, you can get an original Cazabon watercolour from $60,000 to $195,000. Other opportunities are works by Boodhoo from $14,500 and works by Edwin Hingwan for $42,000, all reasonably priced sound investment opportunities.