BANK COLLECTION OF PAINTINGS: FROM INVESTMENT TO THE BEAUTIFUL AND BACK

Fashion beautiful and investment calculation help revive the Bank’s art collections.

Investments in art is a common phenomenon in world’s practice. Corporate art collection and antiques underlines the status of the bank. In Russia, investments in non-core assets while rare. It is thought that Russian credit organizations’ love for art was buried with the collection of Inkombank for a long time. However, in recent years the revival, though few in number, but quite completely selected corporate collections indicates the growing interest of the bankers to the art.

National peculiarities of corporate collecting

The existence of private collection of cultural property for major Western banks can be considered as a matter of prestige and as a way to confirm status. For example, corporate collections Deutsche Bank, UniCredit Bank, Van Lanschot Bank, Intesa Bank known throughout the world and can compete with major museums.

There are no tradition of creating own art collections and antiques in the Russian banks, which was formed by years. This is still not to say that this phenomenon is completely absent in banking sector, it acquired pattern, which distinctive and different from Western model. One of the features is that the paintings that adorn the hallways, the reception areas and managers’ offices are often not part of corporate collections, and exhibits from private collections of bankers. In this case, typically, a collection of art works of the President of Renaissance Bank Dmitry Orlov often appears in memory.

But not always the passion of the head so pronounced in the Bank’s appearance. For example, The President of Alfa-Bank Peter Aven, according to some information, also is a collector of paintings. However, Alfa Bank prefers to act only like a sponsor or organizer cultural events (exhibitions, auctions). In addition, office corridors adorn not the works of great masters, and posters, placards, posters of events held under the patronage of the Bank. The director of information policy of Alfa-Bank Leonid Ignat (who also has a private collection of paintings and antiques) recognized that investment in art can be a fairly profitable investment of funds, because the price of cultural values rises by 10% per year on the average. The trend of recent years in the market i that this indicator can be several times higher. However, the bank holds the opinion that everyone should do their own thing. At a time when lenders felt more confident in the market, examples of corporate collections appears where painting is an fashionable and investment project. In Europe, mainly large banks with a rich history have a corporate collection, while in Russia this is not a necessary condition. Both regional and specialized banks can be carried away by collecting.
Novobank (Veliky Novgorod) has an interesting corporate collection of paintings. Today the collection includes about 70 exhibits, which include paintings, sculptures, objects of applied art. The collection includes the works of well-known artists, including Kuinji's «Evening Landscape», Platonov's «Winter Landscape», Zhuravlev's «Early Snow in September», Korovin's «Capuchin Boulevard», «Still Life with Rowan And apples» by EryshevAccording to rumors, the president of Novobank Viktor Krestyaninov started forming it. During his internship abroad, the Russian banker saw what his colleagues were keen on, and decided to keep up. His own staff helped him to determine the direction His own staff helped him to determine the direction. Picture "The War of Money" was placed in the bank’s office. Copper sheets-money, illustrated on the picture money provoked a sharp protest on the part of accounts department. Then a compromise decision was made - to collect antique landscapes. Now the collection includes the Russian landscapes of the end of XIX century and modern Novgorod painting.
Deutsche Bank: art comes down "from above"

In the 1990s, Russian bankers "became infected" with art on overseas business trips, and when they returned, they tried to translate this idea into reality at home, and today the penetration of corporate collectibles has acquired more active forms: financial corporations distribute in the affiliated companies a single culture for the whole group.
There are 170 paintings that make up a permanent exposition in the Deutsche Bank in Russia. The Moscow office is decorated with the works of Trels Wersell, Peter Reutter, Gunther Ferg, Thomas Müller, Bernard Zimmer and, of course, works by Russian artists: Ilya Kabakov, Andrei Roiter, Oleg Vukolov, Vadim Zakharov and the others. Moscow Bank employees claim that the pictures help them in the process of working. The bright colors of paintings always make the mood better if the day is rainy and gray. The most famous work among employees is a painting by Ilya Kabakov's "Lev L. Matches." The staff of the bank proudly notice that this author is one of the most expensive contemporary Russian artists.
Art-director of Deutsche Bank Friedhelm Huette explained, that the cost of painting is determined by such components as its technical condition, the value from the standpoint of art history and history in the case when it comes to works created more than 50 years ago. If the author is a modern artist, the price of the paintings depends on his prestige, the level of education, how often the artist's name is mentioned in the media nd who of the famous people has already bought his works. To determine the specific market value of paintings, auction houses use the author's sales figures for the last four to five years. At the same time, the choice of the direction of painting in the investment sense is not so important. Today the works of artists of the XX century and objects of contemporary art are popular among purchasers. Impressionism is best sold, the Russian avant-garde is costly. It is curious that prices for Russian art are always higher than for foreign ones. Deutsche Bank specializes in painting on paper. And preference is given to young perspective artists.

UniCredit Bank: pleasant addition to the "daughter"

At that time, a new central office building was opened on Prechistenskaya quay. Architects recommended to decorate the new structure of the wall with works of art. This idea was liked by the management of the bank, which saw in it not only aesthetic, but also social sense. Then the formation of the collection began. As a consultant, the bank's management invited art critic Alexander Balashov, who was the permanent curator of the bank for many years.
The collection does not refer to the number of outstanding in the number of exhibits presented in it – it includes about 100 works. However, it is a kind of relic of corporate collectibles, since the formation began even before the crisis. It includes works of painting, drawing and sculpture by Russian artists of the 1920s-1930s. The head of Marketing, Brand Management and Product Communications of UniCredit Bank Iren Shkarovskaya explained, theme has been selected due to a number of factors: The art of the 20-30s of the 20th century remained unexplored for a long time, hiding in the shadow of the avant-garde. Most of the artists names are known only to art historians-professionals. But the painting of this period is a special phenomenon, filled with a deep dramatic content, Because in these years in the life of the country there have been many significant events. "

In the collection there are several real masterpieces of world level, the value of which is recognized by authoritative Russian experts in the field of art. For example, the work of Daniil Cherkes "Woman in the Ages", "The Dream" by Leonid Chupyatov, as well as the work of Alexander Drevin "In the Mountains of Armenia" and "Landscape with the Railway Bridge" of the middle of 1930s.
As is known, in 2005 the International Moscow Bank became a member of UniCredit Group. For the "parent" company it was a pleasant surprise to have its own collection in the new department of the group. The fact is that UniCredit Bank is also famous for its corporate collection, which includes more than 50 thousand of works and contains the works of art, which belong to different banks of the group. The collection is extensively presented the Italian art of different periods and directions. At the moment it includes works of art created since the XV centuryand among these works there are paintings by Rubens, and works of early avant-garde, such as Yves Klein, Joseph Beuys, Tony Cragg, and many contemporary artists from the countries in which the group is present.

The collection of International Moscow Bank at full strength remains in Moscow, its best exhibits adorn the main office of the Bank, and the journey through the corridors can be compared to a visit to the exhibition. In 2008, UniCredit Bank has released an album-catalogue of all works included in the collection, thus summing up an intermediate result. Further expansion of the collection is planned in the near future. On the question of whether the Bank is to sell art, the answer was: “Proposals for the sale of paintings repeatedly received, but they are not considered.”
«AK BARS»: one step from beauty to investments

The collection of the Bank "AK BARS" is one of the richest corporate banking collections of works of art. It represented the Russian (the end of XIX–beginning of XX century), Soviet and Western European art, and also objects of decorative art, sculpture, a unique painting with hot enamel on metal and overglaze painting on porcelain in the tradition of the XIX century. It contains about 300 exhibits.
However, the project has a lyrical story, in which the main role assigned to the head of the Bank.

When his work on this post began, the Chairman of Board of Bank "AK BARS" Robert Minnegaliev decided to visualize one of his favorite aphorisms of Nietzsche: « What doesn't kill you makes you stronger ». the banker pondered this idea as long as his mind formed a plot, expressing and proving this phrase — the confrontation between the Torero and the bull. The Chairman did not decided to take up the brush, but instructed a member of the artists Union of the Republic of Tatarstan A. N. Lopatkin to bring the idea to life. The picture is still hanging in the office of Robert Hamitovich. And it can rightly be called a "starting point" in the formation of the collection of paintings of the Bank.
Initially, the bank embodied the principle of "Art in the workplace" — works of painting and graphics decorated the halls of the bank. Over time, the collection has grown, there were samples that require to be kept in the museum.
2007 is a landmark in the history of the gallery - at this time, its consultant was Eduard Drobitsky. He helped to form a collection, to evaluate the new exhibits, and now in the gallery five works of the "hooligan academician" are presented. According to the laws of the market, the value of items that have passed through the hands of the master and received his approval, increases significantly. The difficulty of this project is in that the most collectors are in the capital. Due to this fact, the number of potential buyers is limited. However, the project has been living for several years and, moreover, has been successfully developing. This shows that the project has a future, and investment in art may soon win a place in the banking portfolios.

Expert’s opinion
Mikhail Kamensky, Director of auction house «Sotheby» in Russia and the CIS

Large corporations lost interest in creating collections after the default. At least, no one has announced openly about their meetings. Art works exhibited in head offices, as a rule, belong to the top managers. It is known about the collections of big businessmen and bankers: Peter Aven, Viktor Vekselberg, David Yakobashvili... Each of them collected the collections of the highest level. But the ideology and practice of corporate gathering is absent today. I know that this will come very soon. This will be the second wave, and the first wave will be the opening of private museums.
As for the investment programs of the major financial institutions, all of them would be glad to create such funds, but there are a number of difficulties. For example, it is clear that art as an asset will not bring a large profit. If you need to sell it quickly, in complex situations, the level of liquidity will significantly reduce. The domestic art market is not yet sufficiently streamlined and structured, it is difficult to play. And the main question is where to get the experts? To whom to entrust the client millions? But in the last three years, so much and excitedly talking about investing in art, that I have a feeling, that it has become a traditional investment tool instead of an alternative one long ago. Portfolio investments in art are possible, they can also be divided into several groups, linked to different strategies. For example, investors buying impressionist, European modernists, invest in "blue chips», and buyers of contemporary art from the countries with developing economies, «emerging markets», India and China, adhere to the high-risk strategy.