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Investors face a dilemma.
Most portfolios appear diversified on the surface.
Stocks, bonds, real estate, and alternatives each play a role. But during periods of stress, these assets often move together at different rates because they share common exposures: interest rates, currency risk, and policy decisions.
That is why sophisticated investors increasingly look for assets that:
- Are not tied solely to corporate earnings or cash flows
- Are not directly dependent on monetary policy outcomes
- Trade in global markets rather than a single domestic system
- Are structurally scarce
There’s one asset class that has typically been exclusive to institutions and the ultra-wealthy that now over everyday investors have added to their portfolios via fractional investing.
Blue-chip art.
See full disclosures on Post-War and Contemporary Art and Historical Downturns below.
Art’s Role in Wealth Preservation and Growth
Blue-chip art has functioned as a store of value for centuries. It is supply constrained, its demand is global, and its pricing is not largely dictated by financial markets.
Historically, art has demonstrated:
- Low correlation to public equities, bonds, and other popular markets
- Resilience across certain inflationary and deflationary periods
- The ability to preserve real purchasing power over long horizons
The post-war war and contemporary segment has even outpaced the S&P 500 overall from 1995 to 2025.
For these reasons, art has long been held by families, institutions, and sovereign capital, targeted as a complement to their financial assets.
The limitation was never the asset itself. It was access, liquidity management, and professional execution.
How Masterworks Makes Art Investable
Masterworks aims to address those challenges by structuring art as an investable asset class.
The platform acquires museum-quality artworks by established, blue-chip artists with a documented track record of public auction sales and historical price appreciation. Over 500 works have been launched on the platform to date, featuring artists like Banksy, Basquiat, and Picasso.
Each work is offered to investors through SEC-qualified offerings. Investors purchase shares rather than entire works, allowing for portfolio-level allocation rather than concentrated exposure.
Masterworks manages:
- Acquisition and due diligence
- Insurance, storage, and provenance
- Ongoing market analysis
- Sale execution when conditions are favorable
When a piece is sold, proceeds are distributed to investors pro-rata, net of fees.
For example, investors have seen representative annualized net returns like 14.6%, 17.6%, and 17.8% on works held longer than a year.
This structure allows art to function like an institutional asset class, rather than a discretionary or passion-driven purchase.
Where Art Fits in a Portfolio
Art is best understood as a long-term, illiquid allocation designed to improve overall portfolio efficiency.
What it offers is:
- Exposure to a globally priced, scarce real asset
- Reduced reliance on equity and rate-driven outcomes
- A differentiated return stream over a full market cycle
For many high-net-worth investors, art represents a modest, single-digit percentage allocation alongside equities, credit, real estate, and private assets.
Who This Is Designed For
Masterworks is intended for investors who:
- Already have significant exposure to traditional assets
- Are focused on long-term portfolio construction
- Understand the role of alternatives and real assets
- Can commit capital patiently
It is not designed for short-term trading or speculative capital.
Allocating to art is not a bet on markets collapsing or currencies failing. It is a recognition that portfolios benefit from assets that behave differently, especially during periods of uncertainty.
Investors can explore current offerings, review historical performance data, and decide whether fractional art investing aligns with their broader financial strategy.
Investing involves risk. Past results are not indicative of future outcomes.
Masterworks is providing this communication as an agent for its issuer entities, not Masterworks Advisers. Content does not contain legal, tax, investment advice, or a personalized recommendation. Masterworks is not a licensed broker-dealer by the SEC or FINRA.
Masterworks can only make and accept sales after an offering statement has been filed, and “qualified”, by the SEC. Any offers may be revoked before notice of qualification. Indications of interest involve no obligation. For further disclosure visit the offering documents filed with the SEC and Important Disclosures at masterworks.com/cd.
Art appreciation and correlation data is based on internal Masterworks analysis of the repeat-sales index of historical art market prices computed based on a value weighted-basis and focused on the Post-War & Contemporary Art category (as defined by the applicable auction house using Standard & Poor’s CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Indices Methodology). The Standard & Poor’s CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Indices Methodology results in a value-weighted index. Auction results realized in a currency other than U.S. dollars have been converted using exchange rates provided by FRED (St. Louis Federal Reserve) at the time of the most recent sale. This adjustment is made to account for long-term exchange rate trends that would otherwise distort artworks’ appreciation. Quarterly index is internally calculated on a rolling basis, including repeat sale pairs from previous 5 quarters in each quarter. Rolling quarters accommodates data sparsity resulting from the seasonal nature of the art market. S&P 500 represents S&P 500 Total Return (Yahoo Finance). 10-Year Bond Yields are based on US Bonds (Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond) and are provided by Bloomberg. All data is calculated from 12/31/1995 to 12/31/2024. Selection of different Art Index inputs or time periods would result in different returns.
- “Post-War and Contemporary Art and Historical Downturns” | The 25% and 11% figures reflect the compound annual growth rate of this postwar and contemporary art market following declines in art prices. A downturn is defined as any continuous period of decline resulting in a cumulative drop of more than 10%. The CAGR is calculated from the bottom of one downturn until the start of the next.
- “Historical Art Appreciation – Following Declines” | considers all years outside of “downturns” and calculates the median annual appreciation rate. This results in a typical growth rate of 13.3%.
“Annualized Net Return” refers to the annualized internal rate of return, or IRR, net of all fees and costs, to holders of Class A shares from the primary offering, calculated from the final closing date of such offering to the date the sale is consummated.
"Individual Retirement Accounts ("IRA") are subject to specific tax treatment by the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") and contributions, earning, and withdrawals may have tax implications. It is your responsibility to understand and comply with IRS regulations regarding IRAs, including but not limited to eligibility criteria, contribution limits, and distribution rules. Section 408(m) of the Internal Revenue Code of the United States treats the acquisition of any collectible, including any work of art, as a distribution from the retirement account. Distributions are taxable to the holder of the account and may be subject to early withdrawal penalties of 10% of such amount if the investor is not at least 59-½ years of age. The IRS could take the position that an investment in Masterworks Offerings is tantamount to the acquisition of artwork, which is a collectible, and therefore should be treated as a taxable distribution. Masterworks cannot offer any opinion, guidance or advice regarding the IRS's potential interpretation of Section 408(m) as applied to Masterworks Offerings and urges those investors seeking to use their IRA to invest in Masterworks Offerings to consult with a competent tax professional prior to making an investment decision. The decision to open and fund an IRA is a self-directed action and does not constitute an advisory recommendation from Masterworks Advisers nor a solicitation from the Masterworks platform or any affiliated entity. No Masterworks affiliated entity has provided guidance regarding the establishment or funding of an IRA, and you assume full responsibility for all the implications and outcomes of investing through this method.
SEC ‘qualification’ only means that the issuer of those shares may make sales of the securities described by the offering statement. It does not mean that the SEC has approved, passed upon the merits of, or passed upon the accuracy or completeness of the information in the offering statement
Masterworks, LLC is located at 1 World Trade Center, 57th Floor, New York, NY 10007.
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