How to start an art collection on any budget

Joe Raedle | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesThe decision to invest in any collectibles market should start with curiosity and love, and buying art is no exception. While the rarest works of art in the world have sold for hundreds of millions of dollars, for most collectors, art is unlikely to match the returns offered by traditional investment markets. A recent analysis of 10-year annualized returns including data through 2024 showed that the stock market vastly outperformed art. True, it has been an incredibly strong bull market on a historical basis, but the performance from the art market over the same time period produced some of the worst 10-year returns in seven decades. As with any asset class experiencing a downturn, some experts see the recent weakness as a buying opportunity. The 2025 market did see some improvement, and 2026 has been an ever better year to date, with younger buyers showing up in a big way. But experts also stress that the art world is the least transparent market imaginable, with significant "insider information" involved in anticipating big jumps and the next major wave of hype. "What I tell people is that there is so much inside information in the art...