When choosing an art trust, we should choose a powerful investment consultant, and when evaluating the fidelity of art, we should look for other professional institutions to evaluate it after our own evaluation. It is best to choose art trust products guaranteed by powerful groups or related products launched by banks.
Due to the great differences in the art field itself, the lack of marketization of pricing and transparency of transactions, the specific operation modes of such products are also quite different, and it is difficult to have a clear operation mode like real estate trust and equity pledge trust. Investors are advised to treat and choose such products with caution. Of course, if there is a strong guarantor and a simple debt relationship behind the art trust product, so that the risk of the whole product can be identified and controlled, it can still be properly involved. However, whether the future art market can really make a breakthrough in the direction of trust depends on the transparency of art identification, pricing and circulation and the establishment of a standard system. On June 18, 2009, SDIC Trust Co., Ltd. launched the "SDIC Trust Shi Shengbao 1 Poly Art Investment Collective Fund Trust Plan", which was used to purchase the income rights of famous painters, marking the official entry of domestic trust institutions into the art investment field. Since then, under the impetus of SDIC Trust, more and more trust companies have begun to set foot in the field of art investment, but the valuation of art is varied and there is no unified and transparent price mechanism.
On April 8th this year, Huaao International Trust issued a "Huaao Great Wall 1-Cultural and Artistic Treasures Clearing Fund Trust" (hereinafter referred to as Huaao Great Wall 1). The trustee of the trust is Gangtai Group Co., Ltd., which is the largest shareholder of Gangtai Holdings (600687) with a shareholding ratio of 17.49. The works of art delivered this time are divided into five categories: oil painting, Chinese painting, calligraphy, sculpture and auction collection, with a total collection of 585 pieces. According to the data, the trust scale of Huaao Great Wall 1 is 406.455 million yuan, which is mainly used to invest in mining enterprises under Gangtai Group, and the annualized rate of return is between 6.5% and 8.5%. The main source of repayment is Xu Jiangang, the actual controller of Gangtai Group, who promised to buy all the artworks delivered to the trust at the due premium. It is worth noting that the value of this batch of artworks pledged by Xu Jiangang is 406.455 million yuan, but Huaao International Trust did not disclose who valued this batch of artworks. What is the reasonable basis for valuation?
The risk of art value evaluation mainly comes from the lack of a unified art value evaluation standard system in the domestic market. At present, the evaluation of art price can only rely on so-called experts and large institutions, which is subjective and leads to confusion in the art market. According to the data of some contemporary works of art publicly traded by auction houses at home and abroad, the price of some works of art can be tripled or quadrupled in two years, and the valuation of some works often doubles in one year, which shows that intermediary links such as art valuation are still lacking in standardization. If enterprises collude with experts and trust companies, it is not impossible to inflate the price of artworks. According to the operation mode, the current domestic art trust can be roughly divided into three modes: financing, investment and management.
Just like securities investment products, art trusts will also have investment consultants, mainly to evaluate the value of works of art and make investment suggestions. In the whole process of the establishment of the trust plan, the investment decision-making committee composed of trust companies and investment consultants issued orders to buy artworks. Although both trust companies and investment consultants tried their best to reduce the valuation risk, because there was no recognized authority to appraise and evaluate artworks, the Administrative Measures for Trust Companies' Collective Fund Trust Plan did not have a clear responsibility or evade the connection with the investment consultants, and the risks involved in this aspect could not be ignored.
2011the SDIC trust longfei art fund 15, which was just established in early September, stipulated that the investment consultant China guardian international auction co., ltd. would provide unconditional and irrevocable joint liability guarantee for Huayu century's repurchase obligation. On the surface, the risk is borne by investment consultants, but in fact, not all investment consultants can control the risk. The investment consultant of Shengcang Fortune Wenfu is Xiamen Tuowen Culture Communication Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Xiamen Tuowen), which is a subsidiary of Contemporary Group. In other words, Xiamen Tuowen, who should have been an independent third party to judge the artworks pledged by the contemporary group and put forward investment suggestions, is actually a subsidiary of the client. The existence of this relationship makes the role of investment consultant useless.
Investment consultants only undertake limited liability within the scope of registered capital. "If Xiamen Tuowen's registered capital is only 6.5438+million, but the amount raised by this trust project is 300 million, then he can't pay the remaining 290 million. Many works of art have foam components, and most people make works of art for speculation. Therefore, the role of investment consultants is very important. It should play a role in protecting trust investors, but if it is a subsidiary of the principal, where should this protection start? "
At present, when issuing art trusts, most trust companies do not carefully examine the source of the clients' artworks, and the valuation basically refers to the average level of recent auction companies, or entrust investment consultants to evaluate them. The risk here is that the price bubble is overvalued. In order to realize the value of art trust, it is necessary to realize the investment of art. The realization of art is a systematic problem, involving many factors such as time, appraisal, channels, preservation, market environment and so on. If any link goes wrong, it will affect the realization of the set.
Huaao Great WallNo. 1 stipulates that "the second beneficiary makes a commitment to the original artwork. If the subject artwork is identified as a fake, the second beneficiary will bear all the liability for compensation, and Gangtai Group promises to bear joint and several liability for compensation; If the loss of artworks leads to the loss of trust property, Shanghai Gangtai Culture Development Co., Ltd. and Gangtai Group shall be fully liable for compensation. "
Baoteng No.1' s plan shows that the artworks purchased by Yayingtang will be stored in their own customized storage space for artworks, and the professional team will take professional care of the artworks.
However, even such a setting is full of doubts. Who can guarantee the authenticity of the artworks purchased by Yayingtang? Who can guarantee that what exists in its art storage space must always be genuine, and there is no stealing the column during the storage process? At present, the development of the art trust market is restricted by the general environment. First of all, the lack of a recognized authority to identify the authenticity of works of art makes it difficult for financial institutions to invest or mortgage financing in works of art, and it is difficult to identify the authenticity of works of art. Secondly, under the current laws and regulations, the punishment for fraud is low and the market is not standardized, which makes the current art market chaotic. Finally, although many institutions provide appraisal services for works of art, their authority is often questioned. This makes China's paintings, antiques and other works of art not easy to sell in the international market, and the price is not high. On the other hand, it also affects the development of financial services such as art trust and investment and art mortgage.
Such an environment is easy to breed more price bubbles for the opaque art auction market, and managing art trust is the most uncontrollable risk in the interest chain.
Beneficial Trust Studio's explanation of managing art trust is "a trust model that improves artists' appreciation space by signing artists, then promoting them and finally withdrawing at a profit."
Specifically, it is to buy low and sell high, and the proceeds will be returned to investors in accordance with the provisions of the trust documents. This product is also somewhat similar to a trust, which enhances the appreciation space of contemporary artists.
A person in charge of an auction company in Jiangsu said that inflated prices are a common way for most auction companies and buyers and sellers to operate behind the scenes. "This is a common trick, one is to attract attention, and the other is to lay a good price foundation for the next auction and wait for the real buyer to appear, so it is unscientific to measure the value of art with auction price. But there is really no standard to measure the price of art. As long as it is negotiated with the auction company, it is easy to inflate the price. "
Statistics show that in the first half of 20 1 1, the distribution places of art trusts were mainly in Beijing and Shanghai, while in 20 10, the distribution places of art trusts were all in Beijing. It can be seen that the current art trust market is still regional.
The main reason why most products are released in Beijing is that relying on Beijing's position as an economic and political center and a cultural and artistic center, Beijing auction houses, led by China Guardian and Beijing Poly, account for half of the domestic auction industry, and most of the art trusts are jointly issued by Beijing trust companies and art institutions.