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Jakarta Post

For the love of art or the money?

More and more people are collecting paintings, both as means of appreciation and as an investment

Andreas D. Arditya (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Sun, September 7, 2014

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For the love of art or the money?

More and more people are collecting paintings, both as means of appreciation and as an investment.

Art collector and observer Syakieb Sungkar noted that collectors nowadays started at quite a young age.

'€œA group of art collectors, whom I categorize as '€˜new entrance traditionalists'€™, have an age range that spans 25 to 45-years-old. They come from various professional backgrounds and are enjoying paintings as an element of decoration,'€ he said.

'€œThey are not yet polarized by '€˜branded'€™ paintings [those by established painters] and are more focused on attractive and affordable art work.'€

In a larger grouping, the so-called new entrance traditionalists are joined by other groups '€” new entrance contemporary art and young professional-urban collectors who are attracted to artwork for its financial than artistic value.

'€œTo these groups, the high price of paintings represent big brand names but do not necessarily represent high artistic value,'€ Syakieb said in a recent discussion at the Salihara cultural center in South Jakarta.

Paintings that were acquired as financial investments, he explained, usually fulfilled a number of criteria.

They tended to have good artistic value, a large size, were painted on canvas by a well-known artist and were thematically interesting and modest.

'€œThe other criteria include having a tested price in the primary market [bought in galleries] and the secondary market [bought in auctions or private sales]. Most importantly, the paintings are genuine,'€ Syakieb said.

In report by the Boston Consulting Group last year, a study showed there were some 74 million Indonesian middle-class, affluent consumers. The number is projected to double by 2020 to approximately 141 million, with around 8 to 9 million entering the middle-income bracket each year.

Curator, collector and gallery owner Maya Sujatmiko said an important characteristic of financial-based collectors was their aim to generate a large profit in a short time.

'€œThey are less concerned with the development of the art world and buy art work that is more profitable '€” treating paintings like stock and mutual funds,'€ she said. '€œThese collectors also tend to be more aggressive and ready to take risks in investing their money.'€  

Art curator Amir Sidharta said he was observing a generation of collectors who were more ready to criticize and to learn about the art world.

'€œCollectors nowadays are more selective and focused on what paintings to get. The side effect of this is that only a few artists enjoy increasing prices for their work, while many other painters are having slow days. Some even stop painting,'€ Amir said.

The curator estimated there were some 3,000 painters in Indonesia, but only around 500 of them were active and productive. Similarly, there were roughly 2,000 collectors in the country, with only a quarter of them active, he added.

Amir said the current situation was a great time to look outside the established names, or so-called '€œold masters'€. There were other old masters who had produced great artwork but at reasonably prices, he said.

'€œThere'€™s also an abundance of contemporary artists. Finding their work is really worth the effort,'€ he said. '€œNow is a good time to invest outside the established names, while the price is still good.'€

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