Richard II  According to Julie Bick of the New York Times, here how the story goes, YOU’RE ready to start collecting “real art.” Unfortunately, you don’t know a Klee from a Kiefer and think that Chuck Close drew the Bugs Bunny cartoons. Or maybe you have bought some pieces from up-and-coming (a k a unknown) artists and want to move to more established ones. Perhaps you’re a more experienced collector who has fallen in love with a painting but wondered whether it was worth its hefty price. You are not alone.

“Art collecting has gotten massively more popular in the last five years,” says Christine Wächter-Campbell, co-owner of the Winston Wächter Gallery of New York and Seattle (WinstonWachter.com). “But the people buying art aren’t necessarily educated in the arts, so they’re not confident about what to do,” she said. “Some feel more secure with an expert helping them.”

That is where art advisers come in, to help clients learn about, choose and buy artwork. Their services include educating collectors about trends in the art world and introducing them to new galleries and artists. They may use pricing research to offer advice about which works are likely to hold their value or which may rise or fall sharply. They can also negotiate with galleries, obtain certificates of authenticity and arrange for the shipment, storage, insuring or installation of the work.

Well-connected consultants help clients get into the back rooms of galleries or onto the waiting lists when works by famous artists come up for sale. They also take clients to galleries, art fairs, museums and private collections to deepen their understanding of the market — even by private jet, if the price is right.

As for the collectors themselves, there appear to be as many types as there are art styles. Most buy the art because they love it, and some buy it for investment reasons. As for others, “no doubt — it makes a banker look more colorful and erudite when he can discuss his art at a dinner party,” Ms. Wächter-Campbell said.

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We receive many emails and calls from people explaining that they want to use a Verdult painting for collateral but they are having problems.

Once we ask some basic questions, we find out the problem. Most people seeking to use their art for collateral for whatever reason fail to do their home work and are not knowledgeable about the asset that they do have. This lack of knowledge severely reduces the chances of receiving any sort of serious consideration in using their art for collateral.

Why? Most assume that art is like other major asset classes, stocks, bonds, real estate, and cash and that its value is fully transparent. In other words, though art is swiftly moving toward total acceptance and there have been many studies on this point, art is not there yet. Art by Rembrandt, Picasso, and Warhol are virtually transparent and easily tradable, most art is not.

What should you do if you want to use Verdult art as collateral? Take these steps.

1) Make sure you have the proper basic documents.

Documents include the Certificate of Authenticity (COA) and Bill of Sale or Certificate of Provenance.

2) Make sure that you have a bio of Verdult.

There are all kind of people, and arm chair quarter backs who know very little about Verdult, or what they do know is not accurate. So an Official Bio (either a short bio or extended bio) gives you a ready reference to prove and support your position that Verdult art work is world class and worthy of use as collateral.

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According to Chinnael News Asia here is still room for Chinese contemporary art works to appreciate in value, said art experts at a Channel NewsAsia symposium on "Investing in Chinese Contemporary Art".

The trick, however, is knowing what and how to buy.

For example, an art piece by one of China's top contemporary artists Fang Lijun may be 200 times more valuable than 10 years ago.

To shed some light on the prospects and know-how of investing in Chinese contemporary art, this Channel NewsAsia symposium brought under one roof art experts from Beijing Poly International Auction House, artist Fang LiJun and an avid art collector to share their views.

The avid collector Dr Arthur Lim said he started collecting art some four decades ago, when he spent just thousands buying up the pieces.

But now he's offered up to half a million dollars for those pieces!

So he is convinced that the investment value of art surpasses those of equities and real estate.

Dr Lim said: "Three, four years ago, when the price of art, especially Chinese art began to move up, I found that pieces, some of which were lost under the table, to my surprise were worth hundreds of thousands, and half a million dollars! So art values have appreciated.

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According to the New York Times Venice has its Biennale. Basel, Switzerland, has its Art Basel. And Reno has the NadaDada Motel, a jubilantly unpretentious art event in which some 100 artists rent rooms at two of the city’s vintage hotels and motels and temporarily transform nicotine-infused rooms into art.

At NadaDada, one can find ceramic sea anemones on a simulated beach in one room (a comment on global warming displayed in El Cortez Hotel by Cindy Gunn) or encounter a bed in another room on which the bedspread and burgundy pillows are decorated with stencils of guns (“The Reno Gun Show,” also displayed in El Cortez, by Ann O’Lear).

The event, which is in its third year and ran from Wednesday night to Sunday, is an homage to Reno’s unsung motel heritage. It celebrates the spirit of establishments like the Ho-Hum, the Hi-Ho, the 777 and the Sandman.

“Transience is very much alive in Reno,” Jennifer Garza-Cuen, a photographer, said of the 50 or so motels that survive in downtown Reno, a city of about 210,000. “There’s a poignancy to it.” Many of the hotels have been plagued in recent years by drug dealing and other criminal activity.

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Creative energy … McEnroe responds to the umpire in his championship days at Wimbledon.
Photo: AFP

John Patrick McEnroe, one of the most brilliant, bad-tempered sportsmen of all time, is in London to commentate on the Wimbledon tennis tournament for the BBC.

But he has something else on his mind. On July 1 he is selling at Sotheby's a rarely seen portrait by Andy Warhol of him with his first wife, the actress Tatum O'Neal. The proceeds, which could be as much as £350,000 ($722,000), are going to charity. Not a lot of people are aware

that the man once known as "superbrat" has a serious interest in art and an impressive collection.

"It all started in the late '70s," McEnroe tells me. "My parents never went to galleries, so it was a bit like the left side of my brain wasn't there."

During the French championships in 1977 his mixed-doubles partner, Mary Carillo, took him to see Claude Monet's Water Lilies paintings at the Jeu de Paume. "I didn't know a Matisse from a Michelangelo, but when I got up close I thought, 'That is incredible.' But it was really my friend Vitas Gerulaitis who got me looking. He was four years older than me, someone I looked up to."

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