Indexing the Booming Art Market

This year's marketing award for the most irresistable subject line on a commercial e-mail, financial services division, goes to:

Beautiful Asset Advisors

The message turns out to be from Jianping Mei and Michael Moses, professors at NYU's Stern School of Business and notable believers in art as an investment asset.

The e-mail announces their revamped web site, www.artasanasset.com, where they hope to make a little money from their proprietary data base of art prices recorded at auctions.

By the professors' reckoning, art outperformed stocks in the late 20th -century boom. Stocks have beaten art since, but in the very long run, Mei and Moses figure, fine art has outperformed bonds or gold.

The article from which this Financial Times graphic was taken is posted here.

See also Artful Investor in Business Week.

Personal note: The art market is unquestionably booming. Nevertheless, I'd rather be an executor selling than a hedge fund manager buying.