The Hidden Costs of Art Collecting

Equestrienne, 1931
Marc Chagall 1887-1985

Garry Boehlert loves his art collection. He is particularly fond of one of his newest acquisitions, an oil painting he commissioned from New York painter and gallery owner Max-Carlos Martinez that now hangs in his bedroom in Washington, D.C. The work, Twilight, is inspired by astronomical imagery and takes the form of a 9-foot-by-4-foot triptych. Swirls of color dominate the painting, which represents Martinez’s conception of the death of a star.

The problem, which Boehlert slowly realized after acquiring the piece, was that the lighting in his home did not do the work justice. "Because the painting changed so dramatically based on the time of day and type of lighting, it was critical to get exactly the right kind of lighting to show it off," he says. Several months—and some $22,000 later—Boehlert thinks he has it right. "There are now six little halogen lights suspended from a rod in the ceiling, each focusing on key parts of the painting, and all the switches are on a dimmer, so I can adjust the level as well," he says.

Martinez, while equally thrilled with all the attention his work has received, is also a bit bemused by the hoopla. "He spent almost as much on the lighting as he did for the painting itself."

For art collectors, lighting expenses are just one consideration. In fact, gallery owners, art advisors and veteran collectors compare art collecting to buying a house and finding yourself writing check after check to gardeners, landscapers, roofers, interior designers and antique shops. Furthermore, the costs of owning fine art continue to mount from one year to the next. "So many new buyers may not completely realize that they are just caring for works that really belong to art history," says Thea Westreich, a veteran New York art advisor who has worked with many experienced collectors. "They make more than enough money to pay for anything that needs to be done, but may not realize all that has to happen to properly care for a work—especially people who make big art purchases on a whim. They aren’t thinking that that Cézanne watercolor they just bought has to be shielded from light. Then the risk is that one day they wake up and an important work is lost, not just to the collector but to the world."


Pay to Play
For collectors, the financial realization may hit as soon as the auctioneer’s gavel descends and they find themselves the new owner of a work of art. Within the next hour or so, they will write a check not only for the purchase price but also to cover the buyer’s premium, typically around 15 percent of the final price. Then the auction house representative will ask how they want their work shipped to them.


When a collector buys a treasured piece of art, his outlay is just beginning. Fees for insurance, framing, lighting and pres-ervation, among many other things, pile up quickly, often taking novice owners and investors by surprise. In today’s overheated market, where many view art more for its potential appreciation than for its aesthetic value, collectors must fully under- stand and calculate the entire monetary investment required for this asset class.

"That’s when the costs start to climb," says Lisa Erf, director of the JPMorgan Chase art collection in New York. "It’s not just the cost of building a proper crate or other packaging for the work, but the transportation." Not many works, she wryly notes, can submit to being rolled up in a tube and sent to the collector’s home via FedEx. "And then what many buyers forget about is the need to insure that work while it’s in transit. The auction house’s or gallery’s insurance does not extend beyond its premises, and typically your own insurance won’t cover it until it’s inside your front door."

Like transportation, framing is a cost that can surprise a novice collector. True, neither is likely to be nearly as costly as the work itself, particularly in the current overheated market for contemporary art; most collectors are more than willing to pay to protect and display their new treasure. "But when we go to art fairs like Art Basel Miami, and new collectors drift into the booth, that is the kind of expense that still shocks them—when they see on the invoice that the photograph they love needs to be framed properly, then shipped properly and insured," says Martinez, who works as associate director of the Winkleman Gallery in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood.

But after a few thousand dollars here and a few thousand there, the hidden costs of art collecting reveal themselves. This is especially true for collectors who seek more than just the thrill of having an artwork they love hanging on their walls. "For buyers who think of these purchases as investments, every additional cost—especially if it’s a recurring cost—is going to eat into their total return," Westreich says.

Consider, for example, the potential costs associated with actually displaying a newly acquired piece. "Many people get emotional at galleries and auctions and buy things that they can’t fit in their houses," says Amy Cappellazzo, cohead of contemporary art at Christie’s in New York. "Some go to extreme lengths to accommodate the work."


Even the most cautious collector cannot guard against every possible scenario—and there are some problems that even those collectors with the deepest pockets can’t avoid. Take the world of color photography, for example: Experts estimate that no color photograph—including the large-scale works by Andreas Gursky now commanding prices of $2 million and up at auction—will last longer than 200 years, because the complex organic chemicals used to produce them decompose, unlike those used in oil paintings or black-and-white photography. Digital prints will fade even faster.

For Joan and Michael Salke, doyens of the art scene in Boston and Miami, going to great lengths would be an understatement. In the late 1990s, the Salkes acquired a massive painting by Philip Taaffe called Tsuba Forest. After the purchase, they quickly realized they could not get it into any of their homes. "Whatever we did, there was no way we were going to make it fit," says Joan Salke of the work, which is 111.5 inches high and 134 inches wide. While the couple had always promised themselves not to accumulate works that languished in storage, they had no choice this time. For four years, the Boston Museum of Fine Art got lucky and was able to display the work in its galleries until the Salkes went shopping for a new, larger condominium in Florida, where they spend about half of each year. Finally, they found their new home—an apartment in a new building where the ceiling heights were, fortuitously, exactly 111.5 inches high. "That was the clincher," Salke says.

But even then, they were faced with more than just the task of bringing in the artwork and hanging it on the wall. "Turned out that the height wasn’t precisely 111.5 inches at each point along the wall," Salke recalls. A team of laborers went to work sanding the ceiling and cement floor in a few places identified by a specialist as being a fraction of an inch too small. Then, worried by the possibility of some kind of adverse reaction between the painting’s canvas and the cement floor base, the Salkes oversaw the installation of a kind of drain pan along the cement floor—the same kind of underflooring used with shower tile. At last, it was time to hang the painting. "It took a day and a half to install," Salke remembers.

Finally, the new flooring, marble, could be installed. First, however, they screened off the painting in a kind of clean room, so that construction dust would not damage it. And, of course, the flooring could not stretch all the way to the wall because the painting occupied the full space. "So we now have a floor that ends just before the wall, with lovely beveled edges," Salke says. Whether or not the condominium’s next buyer will be so enthusiastic about such unusual features remains to be seen, but the Salkes realize that, as long as they own the work, they are likely to cling to their new apartment. "Face it, we don’t want to have to move," she says.

Even after a collector navigates the display maze, the costs of maintaining the collection continue to climb. Fortunately, many crises can be solved if an individual has enough cash to throw at the problem. Hedge fund impresario Steve Cohen made headlines when he paid a reported $12 million to acquire a work by Damien Hirst—a 14-foot tiger shark preserved in a tank full of formaldehyde. Unfortunately, the shark was in less-than-pristine condition after several years immersed in chemicals: Bits of the big fish were flaking off into the surrounding liquid, turning the tank into a murky mess. Cohen eventually convinced Hirst to replace the shark. Still, the art world is buzzing with the tale that Hirst will do the work for free, but Cohen will bear the cost of acquiring the new shark. (Cohen has repeatedly declined to discuss the shark debacle publicly.)

"Condition really affects the value of a work, so it’s important that collectors be prepared to spend what is required to preserve it," Westreich says. "It’s not a game for the unsophisticated, those who aren’t well advised or the uninitiated, just because they have deep pockets."

In the eyes of some collectors, the real hidden costs may be more intangible than writing checks to cover itemized costs like this. "It’s not the cost of framing, it’s the fact that the framer takes six weeks to finish the job rather than four weeks, and you planned a party in five weeks to show off your new purchase to hundreds of your dearest friends," says Bill Brady, owner and director of the ATM Gallery in Manhattan. "It’s the cost of a collector jetting off to an art fair in Florida or London or Venice or Miami. It’s the cost of having someone on call to walk into galleries with you and help you understand what you’re looking at. But then, when people get as caught up in the frenzy as they are right now, all that tends to just slip right out of their heads."

Art Overhead
Buyer’s Premium: Typically 15 percent of the sales price.

Insurance: With prices in the art market soaring, collectors should get up-to-date appraisals. But beware: As art values rise, so do insurance premiums.

Shipping: A FedEx overnight tube won’t do. To transport valuable works of art, collectors must hire the services of specialized companies that can provide adequate safety and security.

Framing: Proper framing both enhances and protects a work’s value.

Installation: Sometimes the artist’s presence may be required to install a piece, particularly with installations or video art. "Some artists will do that as part of the service for a valued collector; sometimes there is a charge for that," says Bill Brady, owner and director of the ATM Gallery.

Lighting: For some works—particularly photographs or works on paper—ensuring that a room is not too bright is critical to preserving the items. The solution may be to install dimmer lighting or blackout shades or to create specialized display cases. A growing number of collectors not only install nonreflective glass that protects the work underneath from ultraviolet light, but also put in the same kind of glass in the windows of any rooms in their home where they display art.

Security: This most fundamental way of protecting one’s investment is not negotiable. Insurers often require that owners invest in elaborate—and often expensive—security precautions.

Repair: When a work is damaged, its owner must try to salvage what is left by hiring restorers to make repairs. Insurance will likely cover some of this cost.

Suzanne McGee is a Brooklyn, New York–based financial journalist and a regular contributor to Worth Magazine.
10/01/2007