By Nephele Sarrinikolaou
The art world’s semblance of opacity and exclusivity is perpetuating an intimidation that keeps many people from one of the most fulfilling, human forms of investment there is. While most people are aware of the art world, many feel removed from even a basic understanding of its operative functions and institutional value. But for young professionals who will soon be building their financial portfolios, familiarizing oneself with the art world and its breadth of potential as both a passion and asset class can transform financial strategy into a creative practice.
Art collecting has a long history of financiers and legacy wealth that spans as far back as the Medici family’s Renaissance patronage. But investing in art doesn’t have to be a sizable upfront expenditure – with the right methodology, smart investment is possible at a smaller scale. Understanding art collecting as a dual practice of both strategy and sensibility is the first step in doing so successfully. Because the art market exists as its own entity, its fluctuation is not dictated by that of the financial market even during periods of extreme market volatility. This gives it an edge – the potential to bring an anchoring power to a diversified portfolio. But it also determines the complexity and uniqueness in how value is created within the art market and the breadth of what that value is.
On a macro scale, the cultural power of the art world influences taste, engages politically, and defines conceptual significance. On the individual scale, it offers the opportunity to participate in that process first hand, to sculpt those ideas and that value through active cultural authorship. As a young investor, your hand is not necessarily less powerful in that sentiment than your titan collector counterpart. Investing on a smaller scale, in something that does not yet have a fully blossomed market, allows you to dictate future value. You are supporting not only the work, but the artist. Successful collecting is contingent on forming a meaningful relationship with an artist’s career: to be interested in it, to follow it and the evolution of their bodies of work. In many ways, this mirrors how one would monitor stock behavior – tracking growth and external indicators of promise – only here, the metrics are exhibitions, critical reception, and recognition that the process is supplemented by the profundity of humanity. By investing in an emerging artist, you begin to create a market for them, while also developing a personal taste without the bias of the art that is dominating the head of the market. In doing so, you engage with the same principles that drive traditional investing: observation, patience, and informed risk. Perhaps, most importantly, you open yourself up to the possibility of more intimate, daily engagement with the work of art itself. Investment is a long game, so why not reap the benefits of your money while you sit on it?
According to Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, fine art has demonstrated steady, inflation-adjusted annual returns of about 4.9% over the past two decades. While it is true that the market may show higher short-term unpredictability, it has historically performed analogously to other alternative investments and often acts as a stabilizing hedge during periods of market volatility. But in a market driven as much by sentiment as by strategy, passion for investments – the actual pieces of art – is what holds their value when everything else wavers. Collecting is participation, an active creative meditation, where intuition and analysis coexist in equal measure. The refusal of the art market to conform to conventional markets is precisely what drives its longevity and vitality.
To further understand the intersection between creativity, strategy and collecting, I spoke with art world mogul Maria Brito. Brito is one of the most influential figures operating at the nexus of art and entrepreneurship. Venezuelan-born and New York-based, she is an award-winning contemporary art advisor, curator and author. A Harvard graduate, Brito forged her impressive career after pivoting to the art world from corporate law to pursue her passion for art. She has built one of the most respected art advisory practices in the industry. Her writing has appeared in Forbes, Artnet, Elle, and Huffington Post, and her work and expertise have been featured in The New York Times, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine and TEDx amongst others. Her bestselling and highly acclaimed book, How Creativity Rules the World, contends with creativity as both a mindset and a means of capital growth, arguing that the same principles that drive artistic innovation can also be applied to inspire business and investment success. In our conversation, Brito reflects on how young professionals can use this mindset and intentional curiosity to enter the art world and begin collecting.
Nephele Sarrinikolaou: When you begin working with a new client, what does that first conversation usually look like? How do you get a sense of both their personal sensibility—what they’re drawn to—and what might also be a smart, strategic purchase for them?
Maria Brito: You know, every client is very different. And that's kind of like the job of being in this business – adapting and understanding their needs – because there are people who don't really have a great grasp of art history, or they don't necessarily hit all the galleries or know what's happening. With those people, you have to be a little bit more patient, but also understand that their goals might be different, and they just want to have some art on their walls that is both an investment and at the same time something that is aesthetically aligned with what they like. [Then] there are clients who are very well prepared. They understand art history, contemporary art, and know what they want. Some people come with their own ideas and say, 'I want half of what I'm acquiring to be allocated to black artists.’ So it's all a bit of a dance. I don't impose, but I guide. I receive 20 previews every day of art shows around the world. I try to filter that information according to their sensibilities, budgets, wishes, and make this process of acquiring something meaningful and painless.
NS: In your book, How Creativity Rules the World, you talk about the importance of curiosity, experimentation, and even the willingness to fail as essential parts of the creative process. How do you think that mindset applies to someone who’s just beginning to collect, especially a young person who wants to make informed decisions but feels intimidated by the art world, the uncertainty or the risk of “getting it wrong”?
MB: Right. I do work with a lot of young people and I always tell them that they have to be open to seeing things differently. I mean, not everybody is open regardless of age. And that's kind of a thing that has to be conspicuously mentioned because I mean, sure, you can be young, but there are so many factors you're bringing to a piece of work – your school, practiced religion, etc. Those things sometimes you conform to or you rebel against. Curiosity is obviously the centerpiece of creative thinking, because if you think you know everything, then you're never going to grow. And if you think that you have this particular taste and nothing else can really fulfill your wishes or make your heart excited, then you're really never going to have anything that helps you grow. And that’s the point of collecting art: trying to see the world through the eyes of people who are different from you. I like the idea of the challenge. The best collectors, the best people that I work with, are the ones that are really willing to stretch their minds, and be open to multiple perspectives, genders, nationalities, religions, races… in short, curiosity is really important.
NS: You describe creativity as a kind of universal currency, the bridge between imagination and capital. This hybrid way of thinking takes practice and intentionality. How do you think someone, particularly a young professional or emerging collector, can begin to cultivate that mindset?
MB: Yeah, it's very important to be able to inform your brain and the things that you read and the things that you listen to from many very different perspectives. Because as you know, we kind of tend to live in our echo chambers, we hang out with the people we think like us. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. But if that is all that you know and think, it's a little bit like curiosity, your world becomes really small. What I mostly emphasize in my book about creativity is that it's not just one thing, but it's an amalgamation of different habits and skills that anybody really can have – it's not a god-given thing. I mean, sure, we do have geniuses. We do have the Mark Zuckerberg’s of the world that were coding at age eight. We do have those kinds of people for sure. But that doesn't determine the level of creativity of Mark Zuckerberg versus someone who went to public school and didn't really finish high school. The two can be equally matched as long as someone is willing to challenge themselves all day long. I'd encourage everybody, whether they are in the arts or not in the arts, to really challenge themselves, because otherwise [they’re] going to be in a kind of cesspool of complacency.
NS: You often speak of curiosity and questioning as central to your process. For an emerging collector, how might that practice of inquiry shape the decision-making around acquisition, especially when so much of the market feels opaque?
MB: I'm going to tell you the way I approach things. If you think about the size of the art market, it's really big, but it's really not compared to other industries. It is something that is complex because it has so many layers and there are only a certain amount of galleries that I would work with or recommend to my clients. And then you have the auction houses and then you have a variety of different things happening and it’s all kind of in a big ecosystem that people, if they are just starting out, will find difficult to figure it out. I think that for anybody who just wants to do it on their own and doesn’t want to hire an advisor, the best thing to do is become educated by all the websites and publications that tackle contemporary art like ArtNet and Art News, the Art Newspaper, even The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. I would say that before spending any money, just take notes or pictures of things that move you, at all these different art fairs you can access. I also think museums are wonderful places for people to discover their tastes. Sure, we cannot buy Rothko so easily. But there are so many things that have happened after Rothko that may look like him or be inspired by him and may resonate with someone who can afford them. I think that this 'boots on the ground' approach is really important for someone who wants to invest in art without any help.
NS: You have often emphasized the importance of allowing ideas to mature and being willing to adjust strategy. With that in mind, what does “collecting well” look like, not just in regards to the purchase but in the ongoing relationship a young collector has with their work?
MB: It’s important to know where things come from and why you love them. And that's why I emphasize art history so much. And I think that nobody who really takes collecting seriously should do it without having an understanding of art history. It is a bit of a battle because as I told you, I have young clients who are very hip and cool and fun, and don't really have too much time to sit down and read things. But I want them to know more about what they are collecting and I want them to know where things are coming from. I want them to not just fall in love with the imagery alone, but with the entire background represented by the artwork. That is what “collecting well” is really about. We go through cycles of “hypes” and pricing bubbles that burst. People get crazy and just buy things because of FOMO and because your golf buddy told you too. That's not the way to do it, because “collecting well” means standing behind your acquisitions once the hype around them has disappeared. When the bubble has burst, what are you gonna do? Are you still gonna love them? Did you really know what you were getting and its worth beyond a price tag that has been destroyed?
Brito’s insights frame collecting not purely as a practice of accumulation but of genuine engagement. The art market offers an incredible opportunity to diversify your portfolio and make smart investments, but perhaps more importantly begs a meaningful interest in its process – both the pursuit and the work itself. “Collecting well” manifests in profound moments of self actualization when taste is realized and you build a relationship with the work before you. Suddenly, what might have been a purely financial pursuit becomes something far more dimensional: a sustained, creative balance between intuition and intellect. Collecting transcends and enlarges the world around you.