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For some art funds, such as artfonds-21.com, referenced by Horowitz in Appendix C, the goal is a publicly traded stock corporation that will provide a measure of value in the market place for its holdings.   But without

Without some sort of open market buying of publicly traded equity in the investment fund, the investor in an art fund is essentially forced to must rely on expert valuations, such as the detailed appraisal Professor Finley provided the Toscafund Tosca Fund in 2011. 

What I found very interesting about the Professor's appraisal is that in valuing a fund, one has to rely on a lot more than auction prices.  I had originally thought Thornton's assessment that art is worth what "someone is willing to pay for it" as an easy gauge of value.  But it's overly simplistic; many more factors are in play and need to be considered, e.g., uniqueness and history of the work, given the reality that not every piece is readily auctioned or sold.

Interestingly, the increasing popularity of art investment funds is in and of itself a gauge of the stabilization art values since the start of the recession (as well as a reflection of renewed confidence in the funds after many of them closed down ).   One recent fund, known as the Art Exchange, was started last year.  In its brochure, which refers to is company as "The Stock Exchange for Art," it lists its attributes as: Image Removed Image Added
Here is the link to their brochure:  http://www.afmarkets.net/en/brochure.pdf

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"Gravitational Wave"

Acquisition Price $1500

2) Soos Packard

Sculpture

"chickn lickn head"

Acquisition Price $2500 Image Added

3) Kelso Jacks

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"Prey"

Acquisition price: $750 Image Added