Fast cars and fine art bring out the bankers
It was a night of fat cigars, fast cars and fine art at the ‘Millionaires Arts Fair’ held at the Scuderia Graziani showroom in Crown Street Woolloomooloo.
Brainchild of art investor, ex-banker and financial planner Greg Nazvanov, the silent auction of mostly Aboriginal works was designed to raise money for the Fred Hollows Foundation through a percentage of sales and one work by Judy Watson Napangardi being auctioned off for the charity.
The room presented a surreal aspect with Top Gear star-cars by Ferrari, Aston Martin and an impossibly sexy yellow Pagani Zonda, priced at $1.75m, sitting sleekly among a room full of Aboriginal art, testimony to the historical investment performance of the art.
Smoke from Mr Nazvanov’s private label cigars, Grecka & Duval, mingled with fresh eucalypt burnt in a smoking ceremony enacted by entertainers from Sydney’s Koomurri group.
Also on sale were bronze sculptures from Nazvanov’s private collection by Matisse, Picasso and Henry Moore. They were originally acquired as part of his self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) after he exited the stock market in November 2007, a move hailed by investors stung in the ensuing financial meltdown.
Fred Hollows CEO Brian Doolan was there, mingling with around 150 of Sydney’s movers and bankers from the High-Net-Worth (HNW) set. Many expressed interest in donating to the Hollows Foundation. While some thousands of dollars were raised on the night, Nazvanov was cagey about actual amount, saying post-auction appeals would multiply the figure.
A favourite at the fair was a large work by Lily Kelly Napangardi, part of her Tali-Sandhills Dreaming series which expresses the wave patterns found in desert sand though dots and dashes of graduating size and position.
The event comes during a campaign by art investors opposing a recommendation by the Cooper Review to ban investment in art by SMSFs, which would be given five years to sell off their art portfolios if the government adopts the recommendation.
The campaigners say this would flood the art market and trigger a crash in art prices, hurting artists, galleries and investors.
Nazvanov estimates that 20 per cent of sales from commercial art galleries go to SMSFs. While the totals are a tiny proportion of SMSF investments, they loom large in the art world.
As reported in the Financial Review, high-profile arts accountant Tom Lowenstein estimates the move would slice $100 million off the annual Australian art market, causing mayhem in the industry, particularly within the $120 million per year Aboriginal art market. Lowenstein is reported to be meeting Arts Minister Peter Garrett to lobby against the change, and the report muses that the measure could see the art world atypically voting Liberal.
On top of this, a five percent resale royalty to the artist would be mandatory for new works as of next month, a measure designed to even out the sometimes unconscionable gap between the fee paid to the artist and the much higher prices paid as the work appreciates in the investment market.
Director of The Cross Art Prjects Gallery, Jo Holder, said the Cooper proposal was entirely inappropriate.
“Seven bean-counters appear to have met around the table and decided they don’t like art as much as derivatives,” she said.
“Their only justification for the proposal that I can see is the danger of forged artworks,” she said.
“But forgeries are only a tiny percentage of the market, which is far more shock-proof than that. Buyers simply need to deal with reputable galleries who have a reputation to uphold. The government has a highly regulated scheme of licensed valuers.”
“No matter what happens to the market, investors still hold the art on canvas. It’s a form of real estate that cannot evaporate, unlike some stock market investments.”
Art world sources say the market is very slow at present, with the cold winter, faltering economy and the Cooper Review mentioned as possible causes.
by Michael Gormly
