
Masterworks’ advisers are not fiduciaries, which can create a conflict of interest.Īs such, if you’re considering investing with Masterworks, it’s essential to understand where fine art fits into your financial plan before the phone call. When discussing changes to your portfolio with another person, we suggest always working with a fiduciary - i.e., someone legally or ethically required to act in your best interest.

While they mention a waitlist to join the platform, going directly to their homepage from a browser tab (at the time of publication) allows you to “skip the waitlist.”Īfter your application is submitted, Masterworks’ customer service team conducts a phone interview with you, during which you’ll talk to the company about your investing goals and how the art investing process works.

Masterworks requires prospective investors to fill out an application and “request an invitation” to the platform. The Masterworks platform is open to non-accredited investors in the United States. In this section, we’ll discuss the Masterworks investment process, from account creation to generating returns on your assets. The Masterworks Investment Processīuying and selling blue chip art can be more complex than investing in individual stocks. The idea is that this kind of fractional ownership makes investing in art more practical for people who can’t afford to buy and store paintings worth millions of dollars. Unlike traditional art investing - which requires you to travel to auction houses to find and buy famous paintings - Masterworks lets eligible investors purchase shares of blue chip art (defined as art that costs $500,000 or more) online. Masterworks uses contemporary art prices from 1995 to 2021 to illustrate the overall potential of art as an investment. The chart below is the one Masterworks highlights to demonstrate potential returns: However, it’s important to note from the outset that art indices tracking returns prior to 1995 do not show such strong performance. We’ll touch on that in greater detail later in the article. If you learned about Masterworks through an advertisement, there’s a good chance you’ve seen or heard the company compare contemporary art returns to the S&P 500. Masterworks is an online art investing platform founded in 2017 by Scott Lynn, who created the company after realizing that the long-term growth opportunities offered by fine art were inaccessible to most investors.

