Thursday, April 29, 2021

Maroun Hakim - investing in art.

We already spoke about investing in Real Estate, Gold, and now - Art! Well before you scoff and what not, how about telling you that some of the banks invest heavily in art - on a local level the Audi Bank collection is legendary, and outside Lebanon the Deutsche Bank is one of the world's most renowned (do read this link for further elaboration). 

Which brings us to Maroun Hakim and his newly downloadable catalog. The email specifically states: "As a first milestone of "50 Years in Art", we are launching a special catalog that presents a selection of 50 paintings available through a direct sale for a limited period of 50 days spanning from today till May 20, 2021. Its main purpose is to encourage art lovers to invest in unique and affordable artworks by M. Hakim." (if interested the link to the catalog is here), now the catalog lists the artworks as to be paid in banker's checks, which are a neat way to smuggle your money out of the bank - whereas the catalog does not specify this, the Maroun Hakim media team did say this clearly to me upon contact). The prices are listed depending on the size of the works rather than their artistic merit (500-750-1000-1125-1250-1375-1650-3000-3500 Dollars respectively) and are all acrylics on cardboard. 

There is no precision as to the terms of payment, but one assumes it is not a way to smuggle money out of the bank by cheques even if I cannot be quoted on that. Still, some people do think investing in art in times of crisis is a good way to salvage money and keep - or rather increase - its value in the long run.