Romain Gerardin-Fresse poses for a photograph.

Gulf Network

Renowned lawyer Romain Gerardin-Fresse has a passion for art and will soon open his first gallery exhibiting the artists he represents.

The renowned lawyer Romain Gerardin-Fresse, one of the world’s top 5 most powerful strategists, regularly receives press coverage. Passionate art lover and seasoned collector, he advises several artists and many wealthy collectors.

He will open an ephemeral gallery in Dubai on the very chic Mohammed Bin Rashid Boulevard, where artists from around the world who he represents will be exhibited in ultra-private evenings for handpicked collectors. Each month a different theme is explored, and artists are invited to present their work.

The eminent lawyer talks exclusively to PANORAMA about his vision of the place of art in the world of investment.

Investing in the art market can be particularly lucrative when the investments made are diversified, intelligent, and sometimes long- term.

The art market has experienced significant growth for several years, reaching an estimated value of $64.1 billion in 2019, according to the Art Basel/UBS Art Market 2020 report.

Despite the impact of COVID-19 in 2020, which led to an estimated 22% drop in sales compared to the previous year, the sector has demonstrated its resilience and ability to bounce back quickly. In the same year, the online art market recorded a significant increase in sales of 25% compared with 2019, reaching $12.4 billion, or 36% of total art sales on the market, compared with 9% in 2019.

In 2021 and 2022, muse- um-quality pieces from prestigious collections fueled exceptional auctions in the Modern and Post-War Art and Contemporary Art segments, reaching a peak of $2.7bn.

“ There are two ways of investing properly” explains Romain.

“Either by grasping its purely speculative nature, or by considering it as a diversified asset in one’s invested capital.” There are now some 75 million-art collectors worldwide, five times as many as at the end of the 1990s.

“This veritable craze can be explained in part by the growing number of artists and styles on the market, by greater education and awareness, and by the widespread access to culture in our modern societies, which in the past was re- served for a certain elite” exposes the renowned lawyer.

“The average annual return on a safe investment is almost 7% per annum, with a particularly optimized tax system. For the diversified investor who wants to add to a relatively large initial investment, the return can be as high as 11%.” This is by far one of the most profitable investment segments.

“Various investment funds have specialized in art, such as Sgam AI Art Fund or Art Collection Fund, with financial engineers who also have a real awareness of art and who have included in their teams experts who can identify pieces that are tending to increase in value.

Each fund diversifies its assets in its own way, always favoring modern and contemporary art - which has a much better chance of increasing in value than classic works whose prices have often already passed the 4 or 5 million dollars mark.” In practical terms, the initial investment can be doubled if the work is kept for a dozen years. This is the recommended period of conservation to benefit from the effect of compound interest.

Based on a conservative yield of 7% per annum, the capital gain on resale can be as much as 80 to 150% in the case of a purchase - recommended - over the counter, and potentially as much as 250 to 300% in the case of a global deal negotiated by an investment fund.

By way of illustration, the price index of ArtPrice, a French company that quotes the art market on the Internet and sells works of art online, has risen by 290% since 2000.

Novice investors looking for a profitable but risk-free investment should buy canvases or works by artists who are already quoted, and who have a track record that allows them to accurately assess the evolution of their prices and the economic projections that can be made.

“It is worth remembering that more than half the world’s earnings (64%) come from just 50 artists.

An artist who sells between 30 and 40 works a year and whose unsold rate does not exceed 50% is considered to have a good sales performance.” underlines Romain Gerardin-Fresse.

“You should also choose an artist whose works sell well inter- nationally, particularly in London and New York, two cities that account for more than half of the art market.

If you’re in the speculative segment, you can identify several artists who are beginning to catch on, which suggests that prices will eventually rise exponentially, thanks to exhibitions in leading venues, increased sales volume, or referrals from legitimate sources such as Artsper.

A decisive factor is the artists who are signed by major galleries that negotiate exclusivity by buying all their productions, such as Eden Gallery, present in Dubai, New York, Aspen and London.

Some artists, such as Fred Al- lard, a French contemporary artist who works in his family studio in Saint-Laurent-du-Var, near Nice in France, where he mainly creates sculptures based on objects compressed and set in resin, have recently signed.

This exclusivity will avoid the price variations that could be observed when they were in independent galleries, and we are already seeing an increase in the value of the pieces.” But some artists don’t want speculation to get hold of their artistic fruit, like the Argentinian sculptor and painter Calman Shemi, who always keeps an eye on the price he sells to collectors.

“Many artists benefit from making themselves known, in that the style, power and disruptive nature of their work suggest that they will penetrate the market powerfully. I’m thinking in particular of John Thery, a French artist we represent in the Emirates, who uses a different projection process and colors that capture the visual attention. The plasticity and materials form a creative whole that appeals. Amélie BERAL is also particularly challenging in her creations, where she manages to give depth to the animal’s subjects’ looks and com- bine them with bright, shimmering colours” underlines Romain Gerar- din- Fresse.

But the lawyer likes to remind us of the personal dimension that must bind the investor-collector to the art pieces: “It is important to choose an artist whose work appeals and matches with the personal tastes. Investing in art should be an enriching and gratifying experience, and having works that speak to you is essential. It’s important not to forget that art is first and foremost a passion, an expression of the artist’s ‘ego’ in the Latin sense of the term, the deepest self, the dialogue between the artist and the world he or she wishes to speak to.

Any collector who sets out to acquire a piece must necessarily fall under its spell.” Cultural differences can give rise to appropriation. It is a strength.

Any collector who finds a work that breaks with the codes of what they are used to exhibiting at home is likely to fall under its spell.

When we asked Romain about the artists he loves and would like to highlight in the UAE, his answer was straightforward: “I really like Shahi Dayekh, a Lebanese artist living in the Emirates, who works on constellations with real meticulousness. The inter- play of matter and colour gives real depth to her pictorial works.

Her “Pleiades” resonate with an ensemble of light and darkness that I find fascinating.

I also really like Wafa El Hilali, with her soft, soothing, almost pastel colors, and the technique she uses around shades of green, yellow, and blue - blue being her dominant colour. Her fairly rectangular or linear strokes are never too rough.

Finally, I have a certain fondness for a few of Leila Mukhaimer’s paintings, notably ‘Mirage’, painted in 2018, where the combination of a strong yellow and blue symbolizes the instant hope that fades, then comes back by dint of continuing to believe. A beautiful allegory of life.”