Art-Secured Lending: Obstacles and Proposed Solutions

Taking up the appeal of lenders around the world, this article shows that there is an opportunity to internationally and uniformly regulate art-financing. The research contributes to the debate by presenting recent evolutions of the art-financing industry from both the financial and legal perspectives. The article provides an overview of the art-secured lending market, focusing firstly on financial issues that hinder the practice and the proposed solutions to them; and secondly on legal issues. Despite the financial difficulties faced by service providers, including determining the estimated return of a work of art after two years from the issuance of the loan, scholars and market players have successfully teamed up to solve some urgent financial issues. Departing from recent literature that analyses art-financing exclusively from a financial standpoint, this paper also considers art-financing from a legal perspective, presenting two case studies and two different legal systems. The jurisprudence of both U.S. and selected European courts on point is employed to highlight the advantages and drawbacks of art-secured lending. Finally, the article advocates the creation of an international register of collateralized art goods to encourage international secured transactions involving art works.