Management of an art collection as an investment opportunity

This diploma thesis is dedicated to the phenomenon of art collecting, which under certain circumstances can be considered as an alternative investment. The aim of the thesis is to examine the possibilities of art collecting and investing in the context of both Czech and world art markets, and determine whether art collecting is a form of investment that can generate future profit. Another goal of the thesis is the creation of recommendations that can help collectors create a quality collection while increasing its value over time, no matter if the collection is to be sold afterwards or not. The thesis is divided into several parts. In the first part I describe the collecting itself, various types of collections, significant collectors and also the institutionalized forms of collections in the Czech Republic and abroad. After that I talk about the art market regarding its selling channels together with their advantages and disadvantages for collectors. Subsequently I focus on the price-making process on the art market which creates the base for the next chapter about investing in art where I describe types and rules of investing in art, and afterwards I define the rules regarding the management of an art collection in general with emphasis on its appreciation. In the end I show a practical example of the artworks price development using the artworks of one well-known Czech artist, where some of the formal theoretical statements are applied about investing in art and building an art collection. The whole thesis is assembled together with the opinions of experts from the art field in the form of expert interviews by adding their practical notes continuously to the text.