If you're displaying the art in your home, you'll need to be mindful of temperature, humidity, sunlight, and other factors that could degrade the work. For a fee, you can opt to have a storage company keep the work in a climate-controlled environment.
Other costs to consider when purchasing and selling artwork include sales tax, transportation expenses, authentication and appraisal fees, and insurance. You may also want to buy a nice frame or another type of display mechanism for your artwork.
How to make your first investment in art
You can easily find art to purchase at galleries and auction houses (both physical and online). You might also check out local art fairs. Online magazines and social media channels such as Instagram can help you discover artists you like, and you can buy works directly from artists' websites.
Or you might dive into the world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which can represent ownership of digital art. There are several ways to invest in art, each with varying degrees of risk and reward.
High risk and high price tag
You can buy original works at auctions, galleries, and art fairs. However, doing so comes with the highest price tag and the highest amount of risk.
You can try to buy works by an up-and-coming artist, hoping you've found the next Banksy. A one-of-a-kind painting or sculpture could someday be worth much more than what you paid, or you might have trouble reselling it.
Low risk and low price tag
Instead of buying an original, you could opt for a print of an original painting or drawing. Many artists and galleries will make limited-edition prints of some works and give collectors the opportunity to buy a print at a set retail price on their website.
A high-quality, limited-edition print can be very valuable and costs a fraction of the price of the original. But since prints usually aren't unique, they don't increase in value in the same way as the originals.
Low risk and high price tag
You can buy pieces by blue chip artists, such as Andy Warhol, which generally hold their value better but offer less capital appreciation or upside. Blue chip artists are those whose works have the most stable value and are not subject to fashions and speculation.
Many first-time investors can't afford to buy a blue chip painting or sculpture. However, several funds enable investors to buy shares in a holding company that will buy a blue chip piece of art. (More on that below.)
Importantly, if you're going to buy individual works of art, you probably want to buy works that make you happy. If you invest $10,000 in a painting you think is ugly just because you expect its value to rise, you're missing out on the fun part of investing in art versus other asset classes.
