Art as Investment
Deadline for Manuscripts: September 5, 2025
Special Issue in the International Journal of Arts Management (IJAM)
Art as Investment
Guest editors:
Andrea Rurale, Bocconi University, Milan, andrea.rurale@unibocconi.it
Brunella Bruno, Bocconi University, Milan, brunella.bruno@unibocconi.it
Jianping Mei, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, Shanghai, jpmei@ckgsb.edu.cn
As the global art market surpasses $57 billion annually, the boundary between art as a repository of cultural meaning and art as a financial commodity is becoming increasingly porous. Once considered the domain of aesthetic contemplation and cultural heritage, artworks are now routinely treated as investment vehicles, portfolio diversifiers, and symbols of economic status. From auction houses setting record-breaking prices to hedge funds exploring alternative investments, art has entered the lexicon of finance, prompting scholars and practitioners alike to reconsider the implications of this shift.
This special issue aims to investigate the growing entanglement of art with financial markets, and the consequences—both intended and unforeseen—of this evolution. While art has always held symbolic, emotional, and cultural value, its financialization introduces new logics and tensions. What happens when artistic worth is translated into monetary terms? How do financial actors, from banks to wealth managers, interpret and influence cultural assets? And what does this mean for the institutions, artists, and collectors that operate within the art ecosystem?
We invite contributions that examine the value of art in all its dimensions—cultural, financial, emotional, political—and its role in the contemporary economy. In particular, we encourage submissions that interrogate the financial perspective: how art is bought, sold, valued, and leveraged in ways that mirror, disrupt, or challenge traditional asset classes such as stocks, bonds, and real estate by positioning art and cultural objects as alternative forms of investment. The issue seeks to generate a conversation across disciplines, inviting insights from arts management, finance, cultural economics, law, museum studies, consumer behavior, and beyond. We welcome research articles, case studies, practitioners’ perspectives notes, and book reviews. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
- Art as an Investment Asset
Explore the financialization of art, the rise of art indices (e.g., the Sotheby’ s Mei Moses Indexes), and provide comparisons with traditional asset classes in terms of liquidity, risk and return. Examine how art-specific sources of risk affect art performance and how to account for them.
- The Role of Financial Institutions
How banks, wealth managers, and art lenders integrate art into their business strategies—and the ethical, legal, and market implications of these decisions.
- Museums as Market Makers
Analyze how acquisitions, exhibitions, and curatorial decisions from both public and private museums shape market value, provenance, and collector preferences.
- Auction Houses and Private Sales
Examine the strategic, symbolic, and financial dimensions of auction sales and private transactions.
- Art Value, Price, and Its Determinants
Understand the drivers of art value and price. Gain insights into the main factors influencing them, including the role of gender in affecting art prices.
- Due Diligence, Authenticity, and Risk
Address the role of provenance, legal frameworks, and due diligence in mitigating financial and reputational risk in art transactions.
- Due Diligence, Authenticity, and Risk
Address the role of provenance, legal frameworks, and due diligence in mitigating financial and reputational risk in art transactions.
- Restitution and Art Market Dynamics
Explore how the restitution of looted or colonially acquired artworks affects art market practices, including constraints on circulation, shifts in sales patterns, and evolving perceptions of value and legitimacy.
- Private Museums and Cultural Capital
We welcome contributions that examine how private museums function not only as cultural institutions but also as strategic tools for accumulating financial, social, and political capital.
- The Future of Art as an Asset
Consider emerging models such as fractional ownership, art securitization, NFTs, and the implications for access, democratization, and speculation.
- Generational and Geographical Shifts
Explore how millennials, Gen Z – along with a growing base of women collectors – and the rise of new collector regions (e.g., China, India, Africa) are reshaping collecting practices and market dynamics.
- The New Collector
Examine how new generations of collectors are reshaping the art market by blending financial interest with identity, narrative, and cultural engagement. Explore their impact on fairs, financial institutions, and collecting practices, and how this evolving figure influences value creation and market access.
Submission Guidelines
Deadline for Manuscripts: September 5, 2025
Manuscripts should follow the submission guidelines of the International Journal of Arts Management that might be retrieved in the following websites:
https://gestiondesarts.hec.ca/en/ijam/
https://www.sdabocconi.it/en/international-journal-arts-management
For submissions, please use the following link specifying that you submit your manuscript for the Special Issue “Art as Investment”:
https://revue.hec.ca/index.php/ijam/login
Background Literature
Adam, Georgina. 2021. The Rise and Rise of the Private Art Museum. Lund Humphries.
Adams, Renée B., Roman Kräussl, Marco Navone, and Patrick Verwijmeren. 2021. “Gendered Prices: Analyzing Gender Disparities in the Art Market.” The Review of Financial Studies 34 (8): 3789-3839.
Ashenfelter, Orley, and Kathryn Graddy. 2003. “Auctions and the Price of Art.” Journal of Economic Literature 41 (3): 763-87.
Baumol, William J. 1986. “Unnatural Value: Or Art Investment as Floating Crap Game.” The American Economic Review 76 (2): 10-14.
Belting, Hans, Andrea Buddensieg, and Peter Weibel. 2013. The Global Contemporary and the Rise of New Art Worlds. The MIT Press.
Bocart, Fabian Y. R. P., Marina Gertsberg, and Rachel A. J. Pownall. 2021. “An Empirical Analysis of Price Differences for Male and Female Artists in the Global Art Market.” Journal of Cultural Economics 45 (2): 243-68.
Bolton, Lisa E., Heam Tat Keh, and Joseph W. Alba. 2010. “How Do Price Fairness Perceptions Differ Across Cultures?” Journal of Marketing Research 47 (3): 564-76.
Bruno, Brunella, Emilia Garcia-Appendini, and Giacomo Nocera. 2018. “Experience and Brokerage in Asset Markets: Evidence from Art Auctions.” Financial Management 47 (4): 833-64.
Cowen, Tyler. 1996. “Why Women Succeed, and Fail, in the Arts.” Journal of Cultural Economics 20 (2): 93-113.
Galenson, David W. 2009. Conceptual Revolutions in Twentieth-Century Art. Cambridge University Press.
Galenson, David W. and Bruce A. Weinberg. 2000. “Age and the Quality of Work: The Case of Modern American Painters.” Journal of Political Economy 108 (4): 761-77.
Ginsburgh, Victor A., and David Throsby (Eds.). 2006. Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture (Vol. 1). Elsevier.
Loots, Ellen, Diana Betzler, Trine Bille, Karol Jan Borowiecki, and Boram Lee. 2022. “New Forms of Finance and Funding in the Cultural and Creative Industries.” Journal of Cultural Economics 46:205-30.
Mei, Jianping, and Michael Moses. 2002. “Art as an Investment and the Underperformance of Masterpieces.” The American Economic Review 92 (5): 1656-68.
Renneboog, Luc, and Christophe Spaenjers. 2013. “Buying Beauty: On Prices and Returns in the Art Market.” Management Science 59 (1): 36-53.