How to Collect Art with Magnus Resch

Christie's Education: Jetstreams

Magnus is a leading art market economist, entrepreneur, teacher of art management at Yale University, and a best-selling author. His latest book, published by Phaidon is How to Collect Art, an excellent guide to participating in the art market for both those new to the market, as well as seasoned collectors. From working with galleries and art advisors to attending art fairs and auctions, the book demystifies the art world and instructs on how to navigate it. In this episode we discuss:

• In an opaque art market with a lack of public transaction records, how Magnus has relied on surveys of key market participants to support his conclusions.
• Through his research, Magnus asserts that the number of active buyers is actually small, and shrinking, with only 6000 collectors spending over 100K per annum.
• Magnus points to the most recent numbers from the Art Basel | UBS Art Market Report that indicate 1% of property sold in the Fine Art market comprises 60% of transaction value. It reflects an enormous bifurcation of the market where activity at the top is its principal driver now, causing a great waning of it at the lower and mid-levels.
• The purpose of How to Collect Art is to solve this problem by converting some of the tens of thousands of mega art fair visitors into new buyers, to re-invigorate the lower and middle segments of the art market.
• Magnus takes the position that art is a good investment only at the highest end of the market. He explains how art indexes work and the role of survivorship bias.
• Magnus proposes an alternate reason for buying art rather than as an investment, one that he practices himself – which is to support artists and galleries, the economy of the middle to lower end of the art market; to enjoy the social, cultural and emotional benefits of participating in that robust ecosystem.
• Taking a deep dive into each of the segments of the art market, Magnus describes how each of them work by providing detailed chapters on how to engage with each of them: artists, galleries, art fairs, auctions & art advisors.
• Magnus and Michael discuss Case Studies throughout the book with various art industry insiders that give real insights, such as Christie’s CEO, Guillaume Cerruti, notable collectors Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz, and the artist Tavares Strachan.
• For Jetstreams “Grab and Run Question” where we ask our guests as well as our listeners to describe a work of art in the museum of their own mind, one that they value above all others and why that is. Magnus provides an inspiring answer related to his childhood in the German Alps.

Find Magnus at:
www.magnusresch.com
X: @magnusresch
IG: @magnusresch
LinkedIn: Magnus Resch
Facebook: @mresch
Find Michael Plummer at:
IG: @michaeljplummer
LinkedIn: Michael Plummer
Find Christie’s Education at:
www.Education.Christies.com
IG: @Education.Christies

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Recorded at The Newsstand Studios in Rockefeller Center.
Thank you for listening.