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With Peter Loughrey, Director of Modern Design & Fine Art at Los Angeles Modern Auctions (LAMA)
An appreciation for art, like for beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, but a shift is occurring in the art market today that has little to do with art for art\u2019s sake.
Director of Modern Design and Fine Art at Los Angeles Modern Auctions, Peter Loughrey, is perhaps the most experienced modern art and design specialist in the auction house industry, but he\u2019s probably most well-known for his appearances on the PBS Antique Road Show.
Peter explains that the change in the art market has much to do with the difference in the motivation of the collectors of today as opposed to those of 30 or 40 years ago\u2014the baby boomers vs the millennials.
An object of beauty or a good investment?\xa0
Back in the mid-80s when Peter began his career, baby boomers were buying art for mostly aesthetic purposes. So whether the purchase was a pop-art painting of a rising artist or a Louis XVI French slipper chair, it was bought to be enjoyed. Since then several things have occurred to change the landscape: Baby boomers are retiring or downsizing and either selling off or passing on these treasures to their heirs. In addition, over the decades, the value of many of these items has increased dramatically, qualifying them\u2014if they weren\u2019t already\u2014as investment pieces. A whole new resale market has emerged that could benefit the seller who might be in need of additional finances going into retirement.
The millennials who are now coming into the art market, says Peter, \u201chave a taste for modernism and for contemporary art periods and movements.\xa0 They're focusing more on the pieces that have the most value-oriented backgrounds.\u201d His advice to them always is to \u201cfind pieces that you like that are also holding their value and are consistently tradable.\u201d

Who can you trust in the digital age?
The digital age has placed a limitless supply of information literally at our fingertips. In the past, one had to trust an art dealer who may or may not, in fact, be trustworthy and who typically held on to information making it difficult to determine the value of an item at any particular moment.
The art market turned upside down.
The dramatic change, says Peter, is that\u2026 \u201cthere's a whole network of dealers like myself who will share that information for free and very quickly.\xa0 That is actually a unique distinction about the market today, as opposed to thirty years ago.\xa0 That gives people the option of understanding what things are worth, almost on a daily basis.\xa0 Almost like you would look up your stock portfolio, you can now look up your art collection portfolio.\u201d
Exciting stuff if you are an art lover or investor.