Fine art buyers are in the Monet with top returns

Fine art was the best-performing luxury investment over the last 12 months amid a surge of interest in Old Masters.

The value of fine art rose by 25 per cent last year, according to the Knight Frank Wealth Report.

But longer-term buyers would have done better if they had put their money into classic cars – which have climbed 289 per cent in value since 2008.

Auctioneer Sotheby’s set a new house record of £121m for 1917 nude Nu Couche (Sur Le Cote Gauche) by Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani at a sale in May

The research revealed that on average, luxury investments are up 9 per cent in the year to June 30 and 103 per cent over a decade.

This beats the FTSE 100, which has delivered returns of 8.7 per cent and 98.2 per cent respectively if dividend pay-outs are included, according to investment firm Hargreaves Lansdown.

In the art world, work by famous names is doing best. Auctioneer Sotheby’s set a new house record of £121million for 1917 nude Nu Couche (Sur Le Cote Gauche) by Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani at a sale in May. 

Old Masters painted by renowned artists active before 1800 have performed best, with a 25 per cent rise in value over the year. 

By contrast, the value of contemporary art fell slightly.

Veronika Lukasova of Art Market Research said: ‘Unattributed works that are connected with stellar name artists can regularly achieve higher prices than some firmly attributed works by lesser artists.’