Is art a good investment? Experts weigh in on stock markets for artwork

Paul Solman:

The usual minimum investment, $15,000, for shares of an artwork whose price is derived from an auction database tracking 7000 artists post-World War II. Masterworks says it only buys blue chips. Artists like Warhol and Kusama, whose values have outperformed the stock and bond markets for the past 20 years, Ed Ruscha, KAWS, supposedly Masterwork backed securities. So does this pose a threat to traditional sellers like auction house Christie’s, whose Giacometti transmogrified into a Degas had me flummoxed until learning they were holograms to be digitally shipped to potential buyers.