Mutual art fund

If there is one complaint artists have with the soaring prices of their early work today, it is that they don't have a share in the appreciated value of art. All of that goes to collector who had the foresight (or sheer luck) to pick up an early artwork when the artist was not so well known.

The fact that artists have no form of financial security got a couple of people thinking in New York in 2002 and the result was the Artist Pension Trust (APT), which in June will be officially launching its India operations.

David Ross, president, APT, said that the India chapter would look at artists in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. He is excited about this being the first company which has only artists as clients. The way the organisation works is pretty straightforward. A selection panel will pick 250 artists who then become members of the trust.

These would be emerging and mid-career artists (there is no age cap for being selected), who for the next 20 years deposit one work of art with the trust. For the first five years artists would deposit two pieces every year, which builds up a sizeable collection.

Once the trust feels that the artist is commanding a respectable price (with the minimum period being 10 years before they can sell), they will then release his works gradually in the market. Ross says that 20 per cent of the proceeds would go to Mutual Art, the parent company, as management fees, with the rest being split equally between the individual artist and the trust.

The money that goes to the trust would be divided among all the other artists at the end of each year. "Realistically, a small number of the 250 artists will make it big commercially," says Ross. "This then ensures that all the artists who are part of the trust have an assured income, as and when the paintings get sold."

The founding team includes Moti Schniberg as CEO and president, and economist Dan Galai as executive vice-president, finance. According to a formula worked out by Galai, even if half of 1 per cent of the artists selected succeed, the trust will over 20 years make $40 million.

For the India trust, Jai Danani has been appointed director while a four-person panel will select artists. These include Shireen Gandhi of Gallery Chemould and Czaee Shah in Mumbai, Sharan Apparao in Chennai and Peter Nagy of Nature Morte gallery in Delhi.

"We have picked them as they have a proven track record of successfully selecting emerging artists," says Danani. The trust will formally launch in India in June, when it will also announce the names of the first 20-25 artists selected.

While the trust will take care of details like conservation and insurance of the art work, it will still lend it out to museums and exhibitions for short periods. It would also collaborate with the other nine trusts globally to foster exchange of art across borders as well.