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- Art investment opportunity - Frank Auerbach
Hey there
Thank you for being part of our little community here at Stocks and Income.
Below, you'll find a write-up on an investment opportunity that I'm super excited about.
I’m putting it together through a private investor community I run called Altea.
It's a chunky check size, so there's room for the broader community
I love this deal, and I really want to see it get done
It's good marketing for Altea, obviously
If you're interested (not a commitment), please click below.
We'll hold a Q&A session soon if there's enough demand.
PS: Very timely -- the BBC released an in-depth interview with Auerbach yesterday, comparing him favorably to Lucien Freud and Francis Bacon.
This opportunity is only available to accredited investors, I'm afraid.
Frank Auerbach Investment Opportunity
Deal Basics
Three Frank Auerbach Paintings (individually or as a lot)
Investment size: up to £4.1m ($5.2 million)
Duration: 3 - 10 years
Potential IRR: 15% to 20%
Fees: 1.5% management | 20% carry
Deal Overview
Through the same London art connection that brought us Art Bundle I, which was oversubscribed by 25% and has returned 19% in three months, we have the opportunity to acquire three unique pieces by legendary German/British artist Frank Auerbach.
One large museum-quality piece that we have access to at a steep discount.
Two charcoals that are set to appreciate significantly over the next ten or so years.
They're a fantastic set but also work well individually.
Who is Frank Auerbach?
Frank Auerbach, age 92, is one of Britain’s pre-eminent post-war painters. You can find his art in a number of household-name museums:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
The Museum of Modern Art, NY
Tate Britain, London
Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
The Art Institute of Chicago
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The National Portrait Gallery in London
The British Museum
Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
Called Britain’s “greatest living artist,” he’s highly respected institutionally.
He won the Golden Lion at the 1986 Venice Biennale, and the Tate Britain held a major retrospective of his work in 2016. A critic called his 2001 retrospective at the Royal Academy of the Arts “the most exhilarating and brilliant exhibition I have seen for years.”
But while critics and institutions revere Auerbach, he’s gone somewhat under the radar in the society pages relative to contemporaries like Francis Bacon or Lucien Freud.
There are a couple of reasons for this.
First, Auerbach is a recluse, disinterested in public life and allergic to profit. He never goes to parties or takes a day off.
An artist obsessed with mastering his craft to the detriment of everything else, he apocryphally leaves finished works at his back door for the gallery to retrieve discretely.
While Bacon and Freud courted the media, dated models, and were the subjects of numerous international exhibitions, documentaries, and critical analyses, Auerbach was beavering away in his studio.
Second, due to his economic disinterest, he works with gallery representation that’s perhaps well suited to his lifestyle requirements but not best placed to maximize his profile and profitability.
It’s whispered that Frank’s son, Jack, will take a far more commercially-minded approach to the estate when the artist dies (recall he’s 92).
Catalysts
Regardless of what Jake does, the artist’s passing will almost certainly trigger a valuation shift upward. Freud’s and Bacon’s deaths are instructive:
Francis Bacon: At the time of Bacon's death in 1992, his paintings were already highly valued, reflecting his status as one of the 20th century's most important painters. However, posthumously, the value of his works increased significantly.
For example, in 2013, Bacon's 1969 painting "Three Studies of Lucian Freud" set a world record for the most expensive artwork sold at auction, fetching $142.4 million. His living record sale was only $6 million
Lucian Freud: Similarly, Lucian Freud's work saw substantial increases in value after his passing in 2011. While his paintings were already commanding high prices in the years before his death, the posthumous market saw even greater interest.
His living record was $33.6 million, set in 2008. In 2015, his painting "Benefits Supervisor Resting" sold for $56.2 million, and another piece hammered for $86.3 million in 2022.
Several top-tier galleries are already jostling to represent Auerbach’s estate when he passes, and the tussling will only increase as he ages.
Further, tastes are shifting away from the flashy YBA movement as wealthy collectors begin to appreciate craftsmanship more than flashy loud noises from aging wild child Damien Hirst and oh-so-last-decade Banksy.
Auerbach is the best blue-chip example of this high-integrity work, and collectors have begun to notice. In recent years, he has broken his auction record for his portraits and landscapes.
Valuation potential
Frank Auerbach is–above all–a secure investment for now. His best works should continue to appreciate anywhere from 5% to 20% per year until his passing, and it would be reasonable to expect that rate to double in the first five years after he dies.
Overall, an IRR of between 15% and 20% is reasonable.
The artwork
We have access to three pieces of artwork by Auerbach, and each opportunity is slightly unique. We’re limited in what we can say until we have NDAs, but they can be described as “a large painting of a north London scene (similar to his auction record piece) and two excellent examples of his charcoal portraits.”
The big one
The first piece is similar to the Mornington Crescent painting sold by Sotheby’s last year for a record-breaking £5.56 million. It’s a coveted museum-quality piece that would typically be impossible to acquire at auction or privately.
His record-breaking work
Because of a unique set of circumstances around the seller of the painting, we can get it for between £2.5 million and £2.8 million.
Upon Auerbach’s passing, this piece will likely rise to somewhere between £5 million and £8 million relatively quickly, and we have a £20 million to £30 million price target over the next decade.
It’s a trophy piece unlike any other.
The charcoal portraits
Frank Auerbach is well known for representing the same sitters repeatedly. His oeuvre has comparatively few self-portraits, which makes any examples particularly valuable. He produced just three self-portraits between 1958-65 (all works on paper), only returning to his reflection thirty-six years later.
An example of his charcoal self portraits
His seminal series of mature self-portraits can be directly compared to Rembrandt’s celebrated final artworks. Their work was collectively the subject of the 2013 exhibition Raw Truth: Auerbach– Rembrandt at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
These late self-representations by Frank Auerbach can likewise be compared to self-portraits by Vincent van Gogh, Andy Warhol, Alice Neel, Lucian Freud, and Frida Kahlo, turning honestly to their reflection in the final years of their lives.
In February, the world-renowned Coulthard Institute will host an exhibition focused on Auerbach portraits in charcoal works on paper. This presents an opportunity to acquire two pieces before the museum shines a light on this body of work.
Charcoal 1:
Purchase price £440,000
Ten-year target: £1.5 million to £2.0 million
Charcoal 2:
Purchase price £750,000
Ten-year target: £3.0 million to £5.0 million
About Frank Auerbach
Frank Auerbach, born in Berlin in 1931, is a distinguished British painter renowned for his potent, expressionistic works. A Holocaust survivor, Auerbach moved to Britain in 1939, eventually studying at the Royal College of Art in London. His artistic journey is marked by a relentless pursuit of emotive depth and tactile expression in painting, primarily focusing on portraits and urban landscapes.
Auerbach's accomplishments in the art world are substantial. He is celebrated for his unique approach to painting, characterized by thick impasto, intense colors, and a dynamic, almost sculptural use of paint. His work captures the essence of his subjects with a raw intensity that is both deeply personal and universally resonant. He became a prominent figure in the post-war British art scene, often associated with the School of London, a group of artists, including Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud, who pursued figurative painting against the prevailing trends of abstract and conceptual art.
Among his accolades, Auerbach has received numerous honors and awards. His work has been exhibited extensively in prestigious galleries and museums worldwide, including the Royal Academy of Arts in London and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. His paintings are held in major public collections, including the Tate Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Auerbach's legacy in art extends beyond his paintings. His influence on contemporary painting and his contribution to the revitalization of figurative art in the late 20th century are widely acknowledged. His dedication to exploring the human condition through his distinct visual language has earned him a place as one of his generation's most significant and respected painters.
If you're interested (not a commitment), please click below.
We'll hold a Q&A session soon if there's enough demand.
Any questions, please let me know.
Cheers,
Wyatt
A friendly reminder that we don't endorse or otherwise recommend any of the opportunities above. Nothing here is investing advice, and you should always do your own research. Our fund, ALTS 1, will probably take an allocation of this opportunity.
