In what some may consider to be an interesting alliance, Beverly Hills-based boutique residential real estate brokerage The Agency has gotten its hands full with its latest project: art.
The company recently partnered with longtime Los Angeles art collector Arushi Kapoor to launch The Agency Art House, an international art advisory company, catering to The Agency’s own homebuyers.
“The Agency Art House in itself is a very unique model,” Kapoor said, leader of The Agency Art House, which she founded alongside The Agency’s chief executive, Mauricio Umansky. “It blends the real estate world and the art world together. The real estate and the art clientele often have a very similar mindset.”
Kapoor said the goal of the new art house is to increase transparency and accessibility when it comes to becoming a first-time collector of art, which she said draws many similarities to that of real estate.
“Art is not an asset that is a need; it’s a want,” Kapoor said. “Often, the asset is collected by people that have liquidity income. The idea with The Agency Art House was, since art has historically had such high barriers to entry, to make art collection and the process of collecting art available to people more easily.”
According to Kapoor, only the top 1% know how to collect art as an investment, but, due to its high rates of return, she thinks art should be recognized by a greater pool of investors.
“Art is an unregulated asset,” Kapoor said. “You often get abnormal gains in the art world. That means you often see the returns in the art world for certain artists be a lot more than the S&P 500 or even the real estate world.”
When The Agency sells or rents a home, the listing agent recommends The Agency Art House as an additional service the homebuyer might like to consider.
While The Agency Art House does not sell any art itself, it acts like a mediary – similar to its brokerage business – in charge of the in-between discourse between homebuyers and various auction houses, galleries, fairs and institutions.
Kapoor said pieces range from $5,000 to $50 million and include works from both acclaimed as well as emerging artists, in every single medium. In order to make money, The Agency Art House earns a commission on each trade, which she said is typically 10% but varies per sale.
While the partnership just recently formed and Kapoor said the team still functions as a startup, she said the long-term vision is to grow and to inspire as many people to get involved with art as possible, breaking down common barriers.
“It’s not the easiest to find the right art adviser and there’s a lot of distrust in general in the art world,” Kapoor said. “This is the only brokerage that’s incorporated the (worlds of) real estate and art in a very holistic manner where the agents and the art advisers have a lot of connectability to one another.”
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