Artist Pension Trust, a long-term financial planning programme for emerging and mid-career artists and holder of one of the world’s largest collections of contemporary art, has announced t
Artist Pension Trust, a long-term financial planning programme for emerging and mid-career artists and holder of one of the world’s largest collections of contemporary art, has announced the launch of APT Intelligence, an advisory service aimed at assisting art collectors and investors make informed art purchases and investments.
Through one-on-one phone consultations and customised tours, APT Intelligence provides clients with access to a global network of museum curators, art professionals and critics. The organisation says APT Intelligence is complementary to traditional art consulting and art bank advisory services.
‘The art world has not only grown at an exponential pace but has become more and more international in the past decade. Navigating the contemporary art scene is becoming more and more challenging,’ says Pamela Auchincloss, managing director of global operations at APT.
‘APT Intelligence provides collectors and art professionals with direct access to curators from around the world, effectively enhancing the quality and knowledge basis of collections, exhibition programming, and art education.’
The launch of APT Intelligence comes at a time when art continues to gain ground as an asset class among private investors and is also becoming increasingly important to wealth management services.
David Ross, chairman of the APT curatorial committee, says: ‘Our advisers and experts are involved in the young emerging art scene around the globe, covering established markets in the US and Europe, as well as emerging markets in Latin America, India, China and the Middle East. This is an exceptional innovation for the art market to improve access to, as well as customisation of, information and knowledge.’
Bijan Khezri, chief executive and president of APT Holding Worldwide, owner and manager of Artist Pension Trust, says: ‘APT Intelligence is a natural extension of APT’s core business, the Artist Pension Trust.
‘Our mission is to bring innovation to the art market worldwide by leveraging our market intelligence for the benefit of the broader market and also by acting as a valuable source of independent advice for financial institutions’ art advisory services.
‘As the collector base is growing worldwide, we see market intelligence not only as an increasingly valuable asset but as a driver of transparency and liquidity. It is for the benefit of the art market at large.’
APT is an investment programme dedicated and tailored to the needs of emerging and mid-career artists, a group characterised by unpredictable employment patterns, which makes traditional long-term investment programmes hard to access.
The trust helps artists with financial planning solutions that are achievable through investment of their artwork. Members are expected to invest at least one artwork per year to the trust over a 20-year period. APT stores and promotes this artwork until it is sold, at which point the artists benefit from the appreciation of their own work as well as that of the other participating artists.
APT Holding Worldwide is a diversified financial services firm that embraces art as a distinct asset class. The firm says its business and vision is centred on artists’ financial planning and liquidity requirements, while capitalising on the growing asset value of a unique art collection.
APT operates eight separate trusts in Beijing, Berlin, Dubai, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Mumbai and New York, each with 250 artist members, selected over a period of five years; once the number is reached, the trust closes and a new one opens in the same city. All trusts are expected to operate over a period of at least 20 to 30 years. Each trust is headed by a director and supported by its own curatorial committee that nominates and selects artists and their artworks.
