After 12 years as finance director at Christie’s, Philip Hoffman launched the Fine Art Group in 2001. Noticing the need for investment-focused approaches to the art market, the firm was the first to establish a $25 million ‘art hedge fund’ that later morphed into six successive funds.
‘We are basically the merchant bank of the art world,’ he says. ‘We have clients in over 20 countries.’
Last year saw record levels of growth in art lending, where the in-house team can get finance arranged in less than a week for the vast majority of pieces.
Hoffman says he’s ‘lucky’ that he enjoys all types of art, with his personal penchants spanning several centuries from Canaletto to Mondrian and Christopher Wool.
Related
Content from our partners
