Latest Expert Witness News

Art and antiques prices rise

The price of art and antiques is being driven up by investors looking for alternative investments, research for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors showed.

RICS said prices of art and antiques rose 70 per cent during the third quarter, with the top end of the market performing the most strongly.

The group attributed the gains to people looking for safe investments, in the face of volatile stock markets and falling property prices, as well as the low returns currently being earned on deposit accounts.

Traditional safe havens such as jewellery and silverware showed the strongest gains, with 44 per cent more surveyors saying jewellery prices rose during the three months to the end of September than those who saw price falls.

The market for oil and water colours costing more than £50,000 also remained buoyant, with 9 per cent more surveyors reporting price rises, increasing to 14 per cent for paintings priced between £5,000 and £50,000.

But the contemporary art market is continuing to suffer, with 34 per cent more surveyors reporting price falls rather than rises in this area, up from 24 per cent more who reported falls in the second quarter of the year.

back