Antiquities and other Historical Objects as an Investment
Why Invest in Historical Objects?
Our inventory covers a broad range of items including Fossils, Antiquities, Ancient Numismatics, rare Curios, Antique Arms & Armor and Historic Memorabilia.
These items share characteristics important to collectors and investors:
- They are fascinating.
- Most are great showpieces and/or works of art.
- The quantity available is limited.
- The quantity available is generally falling over time as museums purchase objects, taking them off the market permanently.
The last two points are important and common to parts of the wider art word. However, Historical Objects are generally less susceptible to the fashions of the rest of the art market, for example paintings, where artists may be in vogue only to become less valued in the future.
The strength of the Antiquities market, for example, has been proven over the years with ever more successful sales. The spectacular 2007 auction of the 3 inch ‘Guennol Lioness’, at Sothebys New York, saw an Ancient Artifact for the first time eclipse the world record price for any piece of sculpture ever sold at US$ 57.2 Million.
It is important to be balanced. Historical Collectibles, as with other Art cannot be bought and liquidated with the same speed as stocks or some other forms of investment. Although placing a percentage of one's wealth into Historical Objects may be a good hedge against inflation, one should not put all their eggs in one basket! Historically many of these objects have held their value very well, but markets may go down as well as up. One should also see investment in this area in terms of years, not months.
--Update--
Since the start of the current financial crisis we have seen some interesting developments. In one bizarre case this month the unprecedented and indiscriminate buying of antiquities by a non-specialist investor at auction resulted in substantially increased prices for many objects.
The British Rail Pension fund was one of the earliest examples of this hedge-fund style investment in ancient art in the 1970’s. The current economic situation may see a repeat of this across many areas of the art world. Watch this space!
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Why buy from us?
We offer an unrivalled quantity and variety of Historical Objects for sale – everything from Prehistoric items to historically significant modern Curios.
We avoid objects that we believe do not represent value for money in the current market, are excessively restored or are of low quality.
We are in close proximity to the important London Art Market and have a network of dealers and collectors throughout Europe, with whom we are in regular contact. We attend all major salerooms in Europe and the United States and our knowledge of the market is broad and extensive. Our recent acquisitions include large sections of famous collections such as those of author Hugo Munsterberg, construction magnate Axel Guttmann and famous anthropologist, Desmond Morris.
Our buying power combined with our location, contacts and online sales philosophy, enables us to cut costs considerably, offering the best pieces at the most competitive prices.
