Pitching Picasso to the Masses: Artex Plans Exchange for Artwork
- Exchange aims to list a painting in first half of year
- Banks will market shares in artworks like IPOs, Artex says
The Artex website.
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A Liechtenstein prince and a team of investment bankers are rolling out a marketplace for trading shares of art works, betting investors will embrace paintings as an asset class even if they’ll never be able to hang a masterpiece in their living room.
Their business, Artex MTF AG, aims to list its first painting in the first half of this year, said Chief Executive Officer Yassir Benjelloun-Touimi, a co-founder along with Prince Wenceslas of Liechtenstein. Benjelloun-Touimi declined to identify the work, but said it will be from one of the most famous artists over the centuries whose works are out of reach for all but the uber-rich.