With opaque structures and fraudulent dealings the art market can be tricky to navigate, particularly for the uninitiated. A coterie of art consultants in and around Mayfair are ensuring collectors get the right advice
Words: Will Moffitt
“I've got experience working with some galleries who don't do things in the right way,” Oliver Munts tells me. A passionate collector turned art advisor, the director of Mustard Contemporary has seen the ugly side of the art world. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s stumbled across a rogues’ gallery of Inigo Philbricks – although he has “seen people doing things like that” – but the opacity and ambiguity of the art world can make it a bamboozling space to navigate.
“There are galleries out there that look like they’re all singing and dancing… they spend a lot of money on marketing, and they get themselves about, but they might not be giving the right advice,” Munts says.
Munts began collecting art a decade ago, buying works by artists like David Shrigley from galleries in East London. “I got a little bit addicted, I wanted to have the biggest collection,” he tells me. Gradually he cultivated relationships with galleries globally, travelling to exhibitions in the US and China, buying from emerging artists and building his contacts book.
In 2016 he founded Mustard Contemporary, a gallery specialising in post-war and contemporary art, based out of 35 Berkeley Square. It helps individuals and businesses curate collections of personal and commercial value.
“Everybody needs help with the early stages and the advice they're given, can make or break them in some respects,” Munts says, arguing that collectors – particularly the less initiated – are often in danger of being told that a particular artist is “going to the moon when realistically they’re not”. Prices can be overinflated and investors can be tempted to buy works by iconic artists expecting guaranteed returns.
“If you're buying an Andy Warhol, just because it's got the guys’ signature on it doesn't mean that it's going to be an amazing investment,” Munts says, explaining that the term ‘investment’ can also be misleading, implying surefire gains. Munts has deliberately refrained from using this brand of finance bro jargon when speaking to clients.
“The key is to try and keep the essence of art alive and sell people things that they want to buy and that they love,” Munts says. “It's not just all about money.”
That sentiment chimes with Steven Sulley, founder of street art specialist Woodbury House on 29 Sackville Street. A street art enthusiast, Sulley became immersed in the genre in 2013 when he encountered the work and life of the graffiti art pioneer Richard Hambleton, whose cryptic “Shadowman” silhouettes splashed dark alleys and streets corners in early 1980s New York.
“I didn't sit there one day and come up with a business plan …it was baby steps,” Sulley says. “Naturally as you go down that rabbit hole, you start connecting to other affiliates and grow your knowledge and your taste buds develop.”
Founded in 2014 as a private gallery and contemporary art investment consultancy, Woodbury House grew from Sulley’s gradual accumulation of works and his decades-long immersion in the street art scene. I ask him what advice he’d give to new or aspiring collectors.
“Buy what you like. That's a really good place to start. But if you are also slightly treating it as an asset, as an investment play, then take the time, do the research, look at the genres that could resonate. Look at the galleries that are aligned with the artists, look at documentaries, look at social media content.”
For first time collectors often acquiring works by lesser known or emerging artists is a savvy place to start. Founded in 2018 by brothers Jackson and Mathew Navin, Pictorum Advisory aims to educate and embolden a new generation of artists and collectors, helping to nurture creative talent while providing bespoke, discreet advice to art curious investors.
“The aim is to educate and inform and I don't mean inundate people with unnecessary information,” founder Mathew Navin explains. The 30-something entrepreneur wants to “remove the noise” and the sometimes stuffy, often intimidating atmosphere of elite art institutions and “speak the same language” as his clients.
Based on 2 Portman Square, Pictorum is a broad church: a place for veteran collectors and rookies. It also has a gallery that aspires to platform emerging or overlooked creatives, delivering original and impactful exhibitions.
Of course, the great irony when it comes to art is that most people don’t know what they’re looking for. “Not many people know what they like. They tend to buy what everyone else buys first,” Navin says. “Our aim is to try to navigate that line by encouraging them to buy what they enjoy, but make sure they've got the most informed perspective before they make any decision.”
