Company:Masterworks
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| Type | Privately held company |
|---|---|
| Industry |
|
| Founded | 2017 |
| Founders | Scott Lynn |
| Headquarters | Brookfield Place, New York City , U.S. |
Area served | United States + 100 other countries |
Key people | Scott Lynn (CEO) Allen Sukholitsky (CIO)[1] |
| AUM |
|
| Members | 800,000 (2023) |
Number of employees | ~200 (2024) |
US$900 million (2023)Masterworks Advisers LLC is an American financial services company that specializes in the Art Investment market. Traditionally, Masterworks will buy a piece of art and file it to the SEC as a Public offering, the company will then sell shares of the art on their website for varying costs.[2] Rather than selling art as an aesthetic or personal investment, the company sells art purely as a financial commodity.[3][4][unreliable source?] As of December 2023, Masterworks has 800,000 members and $900 million in assets under its management.[5] The company has notably sold artworks by Banksy, George Condo, Cecily Brown, Simone Leigh, Claude Monet, and Andy Warhol.[5][1]
History
Masterworks was founded in 2017 by Scott Lynn to make the art market more accessible to investors.[2] However, the company has since strayed from this business model and has begun to prioritize wealthy clients.[6][1]
In 2021, Masterworks raised $110 million in Series A funding, led by Left Lane Capital. The backing valued the company at more than $1 billion. By February 2022, the company had bought more than 100 paintings, worth nearly $450 million[6][7][8]
In June 2023, it was reported that only 5% of the sites registered users had actually made an investment.[6] The company is also known for it's large marketing push, as the company nearly doubled it's marketing from $5 million to $9 million. Several employees have also reported "unethical" tactics to get better ad placements on websites.[6]
Scott Lynn was quoted as saying, "They know who Basquiat is, or Kaws...They don’t know the other artists. Out of 150,000 investors, very few are art world people."[3]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Masterworks: The $1bn company selling paintings as stocks and changing art forever" (in en). 2022-02-17. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/masterwork-art-stocks-nft-billion-b2007193.html.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Gravier, Elizabeth. "Masterworks: The platform that allows nearly anyone to invest in multimillion-dollar art" (in en). https://www.cnbc.com/select/what-is-masterworks/.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Salmon, Felix (Oct 7, 2021). "Why Masterworks is worth $1 billion". https://www.axios.com/2021/10/07/why-masterworks-is-worth-1-billion.
- ↑ Shaya, Rickie Houston, Tessa Campbell, Elias. "Masterworks Review 2024" (in en-US). https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/masterworks-review.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Masterworks Review 2024" (in en-US). Time. 2023-12-13. ISSN 0040-781X. https://time.com/personal-finance/article/masterworks-review/.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Villa, Angelica (2022-12-27). "Rising Startup Masterworks Beset by Internal Rifts, Alleged Recklessness, and Staff Cuts" (in en-US). https://www.artnews.com/list/art-news/news/what-is-masterworks-fractional-art-finance-company-1234651524/.
- ↑ Primack, Dan (Oct 5, 2021). "Art investment platform Masterworks raises $110 million". https://www.axios.com/2021/10/05/art-investment-platform-masterworks-raises-left-lane.
- ↑ Matney, Lucas (2021-10-05). "Masterworks raises $110M to sell fractional shares of physical art – not NFTs" (in en-US). https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/05/masterworks-raises-110m-to-push-fractional-shares-of-physical-art-not-nfts-into-investor-portfolios/.
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