The Australian fintech start-up Art Money has announced a new partnership that will extend its interest-free loans that can be repaid in up to ten installments, to auctions at Christie’s.
The partnership will officially launch with the Christie’s Prints and Multiples auction in New York on April 16. According to a spokesperson, Art Money can be used for works up to $1 million.
In order to take advantage of the initiative, collectors must first be approved by Art Money, which involves choosing an amount of credit followed by a soft credit check. Once approved, a winning bidder uploads their invoice from Christie’s to Art Money and accepts the purchase offer. Then the auction house and consigner get paid, the work gets delivered, and the installment payments begin.
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Art Money makes money by charging a flat monthly fee of up to 10% of the final cost of the work for its services, which is spread over the monthly payments. That means a collector who’s successfully bid on a $10,000 work would pay $11,000 for total, $1,100 over ten months. (That final price would include all auction house fees and buyer’s premium.)
Art Money was founded in 2014 and then launched in the US in 2016 during Expo Chicago. By the end of that year it had partnered with the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) fair in Miami. According to Art Money’s website they currently have more than 2,000 partners, include boutique and mainstream galleries including Anat Ebgi, Various Small Fires, The Hole, and Galerie Lelong.
According to Art Money, the financing program will extend to future Christie’s sales, including the forthcoming May sales. Among the works on offer at Christie’s Prints and Multiples auction are a Picasso etching, Femme nue à la guitare, from Le Siège de Jérusalem: Grande tentation céleste de Saint Matorel (1913) estimated to sell for between $2,000 and $3,000, an edition of Henri Matisse’s 1947 “Jazz” portfolio for $600,000-$800,000, and a Brice Marden etching from 1961 for between $6,000 and $8,000.