Newman Capital is a full-stack proprietary venture capital firm based in Asia which invests in founders, companies, and assets that bring about disruptive change. We do this by looking for ways to empower, grow with, and add value to traditional industries with our technology and Web3 expertise.
Our investment thesis is built upon three key pillars, one of which is Art and Collectibles. For Newman Capital, art serves as both an affirmation of our firm’s values as well as a financial investment. As we develop our collection and art world relationships, we hope to add value and give back to the art industry.
Curating Our Portfolio
Like our other investment ventures, the Newman Capital Art Collection looks to invest in artists who are disruptors. Unconventional visionaries who transform the narrative and inspire radical change in a tradition, school of thought, industry, or the world. Those who seek truths that exist outside of societal norms and established institutions. This can take form in their inspiration, subject matter, materials, or execution.
With this criterion in mind, our portfolio focuses on Modern and Contemporary works from established and blue-chip artists with a smaller allocation for Emerging artists. Our team thoroughly researches each artist’s history, career, and market, hand-selecting the best examples to build our collection. Among our current holdings are pieces from Yayoi Kusama, Yoshitomo Nara, and Banksy.
Art as an Alternative Asset
While art is deeply academic, emotional, subjective, and technical, it also acts as an investment vehicle. Between 2000 and 2018, blue-chip art pieces outpaced the S&P 500 by over 250%. In 2020, global sales of art and antiques reached an estimated $50.1 billion. Despite market fluctuations and uncertainty in 2021, art auction sales from the world’s top houses, Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips, closed at a record high, totaling $6.5 billion – up 73.9% from the year before and surpassing the previous market peak in 2018. By having a stake in the art world, Newman is able to diversify our portfolio, collect compelling works that speak to our vision, and invest in one of the world’s longest standing industries where we see immense potential for growth.
New Solutions and Audiences
The Newman Capital Art Collection was born out of an appreciation for art and creators, however we recognize our team’s ability to add value, create opportunities, and bring new audiences to the art industry given our expertise. Through our research and acquisition journey, we have had many conversations with art world players and institutions. In our discussions, we are seeing an increasing enthusiasm to explore Web3 and an eagerness to learn about its real-world applications and implications.
There are many opportunities where Web3 ideology and technology can offer new answers to tackle existing and future problems in every industry, including fine art and collectibles. Blockchain offers solutions to art provenance and authenticity, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) make it possible to democratize fine art ownership, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have ushered in a new artistic medium and generation of patrons, but this is only the beginning.
Fine Art and the World of Web3
We are at the start of Web3 adoption, standing at the precipice of a new era. As Newman continues to strengthen relationships with auction houses, collectors, galleries, museums, and other art institutions and players, our team is excited to bring our unique perspective, experience, and network to the world of fine art.
If you are in the art industry, we would love to connect. Please reach us at enquiry@newmancapital.com. We look forward to sharing more of our research, collection, and thoughts in future articles. Kindly subscribe to our newsletter to read the latest from our team.
[2] The Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report, March 2021
