Dubai-based auction platform will now provide loan against blue-chip Indian art work

What exactly does Artiana Fine Art Service do? They provide finance solutions to consignors and buyers at our auctions and arrange advances secured against Indian fine art at competitive interest rates. “Our bespoke finance solutions provide financing for fresh acquisitions or existing collections,” said Lavesh Jagasia, Founder of Artiana.

Art work has been an investment option for a lot of people for years now but unlike other commodities like gold or real estate art is not easy to sell. At least not as quickly as other investment options. This is the gap Artiana wants to bridge.

“There are times that works are sold in auctions for attractive prices, and end buyers are unable to take advantage of these situations as they would have not planned such purchases. With other collectors already holding significant portions of their net-worth in Indian art, and unable to sell it quickly or leverage it when required limiting their investments in this sphere due to the illiquid nature of this asset class,” Jagasia said.

With bespoke finance solutions for blue-chip Indian art, Artiana wants to address these in the art market.

As for the amount of finance provided, while there is no upper limit the minimum advance size is $50,000 which could be against one work or a collection of works.

But what Loan-To-Value (LTV) does Artiana Fine Art Finance offer against the artworks? “We will typically advance up to 80 percent of the lower estimate value of artworks purchased at our auctions or up to 60 percent of the appraised value of the proposed external art collateral,” Jagasia said.

Explaining why the company came up with financial solutions against blue-chip Indian artwork only, Jagasia said, “We currently focus on Indian art in our auctions, hence to be able to accurately estimate and guide our clients and financiers we prefer to stay within this domain. Secondly, there is no other such product/service available for Indian art making the facility a welcome addition to the Indian art sphere having a pent-up demand.”

As for the kind of artwork that can be used for availing the service, Artiana will consider individual artworks and collections of blue-chip Indian fine art as collateral. Artworks must be freely marketable and produced by prominent artists with an existing track record in the secondary market.

The artworks are evaluated by both Artiana and also independently inspected by a conservator.

For securing the transactions throughout the term that the artworks are held as collateral they will be insured at double of the advance amount, to cover the full value of the art asset. The insurance covers the items right from the time of collection, during storage until the final handover.

As for Artiana’s interest in the lending process, Artiana Fine Art Finance will charge an arrangement fee of 2 percent of the advance amounts arranged against external art assets, this fee is waived for finance arranged against purchases made in their auctions. Depending on the value, tenor and terms of the advance the charges are calculated at typically 15 percent per annum payable quarterly in advance for fixed maturity payments, and at a flat rate of 10 percent per annum for monthly installment payments.