My son is a big fan of a book called “Discovering Art Kids.” He also likes one called “Hello, Picasso!” As well as “Hello, Van Gogh!” The latter two are published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Some of the artwork he finds silly, some he finds strange and some he really likes! In fact, in “Discovering Art Kids,” there is a painting from the 1700’s of a little girl and when we read that page he exclaims, “A beauty, a cutie!”
He also remembers quite a bit from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which we visited some time ago. He had so many questions as we walked around the museum and it was so amazing to see which works of art he was a fan of.
I recently read the Wall Street Journal and came across two interesting stories about art. One was about an upcoming auction at Sotheby’s of $85 million worth of art. The other spoke of an art collector and an art purchase he made in 1985 for $6,500 after an adviser recommended it would be a good investment.
I also recall reading a couple of years ago about a Roy Lichtenstein painting which vanished back in 1970 and was returned to the wife of the original owner 42 years later. Once returned, the painting was valued at roughly $4 milllon!
Why am I talking about art in a financial blog? Well, as I mention above, art is an investment!
In fact, artnet, an online buyer and seller of art, provides artnet Indices which allow art investors to measure price performance for individual artists and works of art just like we do for the financial markets. Thomas Galbraith, director of artnet Analytics says “The artnet Indices provide quantitative market reports on the performance of artists like Andy Warhol or Damien Hirst, just as you might track a Fortune 500 company.”
Investing is an important concept we want to explain to our children at a young age. Why not try to explain it to them by focusing on a topic most kids really like? Art! It’s just one example of how buying something or putting money into something could result in big gains in the future.
Most parents strive to expose our kids to some culture, such as art. But, why not also use it as an opportunity to begin explaining that a picture may not only be worth a thousand words, but many are often worth thousands or even millions of dollars. Now that’s an investment!
Want to take this lesson further? Give us your email and receive a free download to a story that you can read with your child called “Benji the Money Tree Plants the Investing Seed,” educate yourself even more on how to explain investing to kids and share a fun activity called “Be Your Own Artist.”
