Art Investing Loses Its Appeal for a $44 Billion Pension Fund

Some of Australia and New Zealand’s biggest financial institutions are selling down their vast art collections after decades of holding pieces by some of the region’s best-known painters.

In the next few days, the Melbourne-based Construction and Building Unions Superannuation Fund is auctioning the last of about 300 pieces, which included works from noted Australian artists Arthur Boyd, Emily Kngwarreye, Margaret Preston and Brett Whiteley. The final tranche to go on sale features about two dozen Indigenous artists.