Big Bang Top “Invest 95% Income”… 2030 Buy art instead of Chanel

Recently, despite abundant liquidity, those who have not been able to find a suitable investment are paying attention to the investment of artworks, which is a part of safe assets. As news of art investment and collection of stars such as G-Dragon and Tower of the group Big Bang and the leader of BTS, RM, is spreading widely, interest in art investment among young people is further raised.

◆ The art market that blows warmth

According to the Korean Gallery Association on the 19th, the sales of works recorded about 7.2 billion won at the 2021 Gallery Art Festival held earlier this month. This is twice as much as last year’s sales. From the opening day of VIP, the competition for purchase by collectors was fierce, and in the industry there was a saying that “the work was sold just by hanging it.”

In the case of Seoul Auction, at the 159th art auction held in February, the total successful bid was about 11 billion won and the successful bid rate was 90%. The total winning bid was 11 billion won, the largest among domestic auctions. The Seoul Auction side said, “At this auction, various Korean modern and contemporary artists and ancient art works were in fierce competition, confirming the high interest of art collectors,” and said, “We are raising expectations that the art market will be better in the future.”

The warmth of the recent art auction market can also be confirmed through K Auction. K Auction sold all nine works of late artist Kim Chang-yeol, famous for his water droplets, at a March auction held on the 17th. On this day, K Auction submitted works worth about 17 billion won, the largest amount among auctions held in the last 10 years, and recorded a winning bid rate of 74% and a total winning bid of 1,380,300,000 won. K Auction said, “This is the highest in about 4 years since it recorded 16.4 billion won at the auction in April 2017.”

◆’Big Hands’ to explore and invest in potential value

Originally, the big hands are people who recognize and invest in potential value. It is the domestic art market that they have been watching with interest in recent years. As low interest rates and economic uncertainty persist around the world, it is necessary to find new investment destinations, not real estate or stocks.

An official in private banking (PB) business at a commercial bank said, “In the past, art investment has been in the spotlight as an alternative investment destination among VVIPs. Since the corona, it has become more explosive liquidity, but among VIP customers who are reluctant to invest in stocks or real estate. In addition, there are many people who inquire about art investment.

In fact, Citibank, who took the lead in holding a seminar on art investment for VIP customers, held an online cultural seminar on the theme of’The Structure and Trend of Contemporary Art’ even in the midst of the corona crisis in October last year, and received hot interest from investors.

◆ Lowered thresholds such as online auctions… due to the opening of investment in millennials

It is not only those with large handicapped assets that are highly interested in the art auction market. The recent growth of the art auction market has nothing to do with the emergence of a new generation that considers art as a pleasure to invest. It is the millennial generation.

According to the Global Art Market Report 2020 released by UBS in March last year, middle-aged and older people view art as a part of art and cultural style, while millennials tend to view art as an object of investment. Amid the coronavirus, many department stores selling luxury goods such as Chanel have seen the phenomenon of’open runs’ standing in long lines from dawn. The industry analyzed that the tendency of millennials to see so-called luxury goods such as Shatech as an investment in addition to corona retaliation consumption is reflected. Art investment is also read in a similar context.

Millennials’ online use of art works is overwhelming. Most of the millennials who are accustomed to the digital environment are also using online channels for art purchases. Unlike offline auctions that were held for a small number of customers in the past, anyone can participate in online auctions now, lowering the threshold for entry into the art auction market.

According to the UBS report, 92% of millennials use online to purchase art, and 36% of them have experience of purchasing works of more than $50,000 online. Among them, over a million dollars were found to account for a quarter.

In fact, the famous American art magazine’Art News’ selected 50 collectors to watch last year, and G-Dragon and Top, members of the group Big Bang, were listed here side by side. In the case of Top, as a curator, he participated as a curator in the auction company Sotheby’s special charity auction held in Hong Kong in October 2016. He appeared on a broadcast program in the past and said, “I spend 95% of my income on collecting art works.”

An official from Seoul Auction said, “Recently, not only entertainers such as Solbi, but also famous celebrities such as G-Dragon, Top, and BTS’s RM are known as art lovers, and the art market, which had high accessibility, is becoming more known to the public. In the case of the RM of RM, the fandom is so huge that it is exerting a great influence on the interest in art works of the millennials with one thing that’RM likes art, RM’s exhibition’.

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