"Let's Make Money with Art" The 2030 Generation Investing in Artworks [Heo Midam's Youth Report]

The 'Arttech' Craze: Investing in Artworks
Popular for Allowing Small Investments
Experts Say "Young People Are Interested in Items with Rarity"

Citizens are trading artworks. The photo is unrelated to specific expressions in the article. [Image source=Yonhap News]

Editor's NoteHow is your youth remembered? From teenagers to college students and office workers, we deliver the joys and sorrows, worries and laughter unique to 'youth.'

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Midam] "Investing in art is better than constantly worrying about cryptocurrencies all day."

Recently, an 'Art-tech' craze has been sweeping among the MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z). 'Art-tech' is a combination of art and financial technology, referring to investing in artworks. In the past, the main consumers of art pieces were mostly high-income earners or collectors. However, as artworks have recently gained attention as a form of financial investment, they have attracted the interest of younger generations.

Amid this trend, platforms that allow joint investment in artworks have emerged, making it possible to purchase pieces with small amounts of money, which has further increased young people's interest. Experts analyze that this is because they focus on investing in scarce items.

The art craze is related to the unstable investment situation of young people recently. Young investors, tired of investing in risky assets such as stocks and cryptocurrencies, have turned their eyes to safe assets. Artworks are generally classified as safe assets like gold. In other words, as the economic situation worsened due to COVID-19, young people judged that investing in safe assets was better than investing in unstable assets.

Office worker Park (27) is also considering investing in art recently. He said, "I invested in cryptocurrency earlier this year, but since the prices fluctuated wildly within 10 to 20 minutes, I kept staring at the computer monitor. I couldn't focus on work," adding, "In the end, I sold at a loss."

He continued, "I thought that just earning a salary wouldn't increase my assets, so I kept thinking and came up with Art-tech," adding, "I am considering investing because it allows small investments and seems safer compared to other financial investment methods."

Artist Lee Ufan's 1983 work . Photo by Seoul Auction.

With the emergence of platforms for joint art purchases, young people's interest in artworks has become even hotter. Although a single investor cannot own the jointly purchased artwork in their own space, there is an economic advantage in that they can gain profits when selling the artwork later. Also, investors can enjoy the experience of owning art without investing a large amount of money.

In this regard, artist Lee Ufan's 1983 work was jointly purchased in 2019 by 268 investors who gathered about 312 million KRW. On average, each person invested about 1.16 million KRW.

Among these, the scale of joint art investment is also increasing every year. According to the Art-tech platform 'Art & Guide,' the scale of joint art investment was 1.6495 billion KRW in 2019 and 3.55578 billion KRW in 2020. Especially, as of mid-May this year, it recorded about 3.448 billion KRW, making the first half of this year nearly equal to the entire investment scale of last year.

Young people's interest is particularly intense. According to an analysis of the age groups participating in joint art purchases by 'Art & Guide,' based on the grade allowing investments from 10,000 KRW, the 40s age group accounted for about 37%, the largest proportion, followed by the 30s and 20s at about 29% and 25%, respectively. In other words, more than half of those investing in artworks are in their 20s and 30s.

Experts analyze that the younger generation has become interested in scarce items to increase their assets.

Professor Lee Eunhee of Inha University's Department of Consumer Studies said, "Young people are among the groups most interested in the economy. Therefore, they explore and worry a lot about how to increase their assets," adding, "However, in reality, it is difficult for young people to access real estate or bonds. As a result, they turn their attention to items with scarcity. Art-tech is a financial investment method that emerged in that context."

She added, "The increase in app-based purchases has also made transactions easier. Also, owning scarce items such as artworks or sneakers itself can be another source of joy for young people."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.