ADMITTING MISTAKES MAKES YOU MORE CAREFUL IN THE FUTURE!!
Mai Trung Thu
THERE IS NO ONE ON THIS PLANET WITH YEARS ON HIS/HER BACK, WHO HAS NOT MADE MISTAKES OF ONE SORT OR ANOTHER. I AM NO EXCEPTION AND I MUST ADMIT I MADE MANY SERIOUS MISTAKES THAT HAVE NO END, IF I STARTED TALKING ABOUT THEM.
I AM GOING TO TALK ABOUT THE LATEST ONE THAT IS SIMPLY TERRIBLE AND UNFORGIVABLE. YES, UNFORGIVABLE AND I ADMIT THAT WITH REGRET AND A SEVERE BITTERNESS IN MY MOUTH.
I WILL WRITE THE BLOG TOMORROW IN THE MORNING AND THUS I INVITE YOU TO VISIT THE SITE IN THE MORNING TO READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE. IF YOU PREFER TO VISIT SOME OF MY OTHER BLOG ENTRIES , PLEASE FREE TO DO SO!!
An investment in art should be for ten to twenty years, the old wise art investor advised me!!!
That was a wise advise I was given back in 1986. That is provided you can afford that length of time, which I could not in the 1980s, 1990s and perhaps 2000s. It was an advice that now and after I made so many mistakes comes true to chase me and haunt me somehow. It is a rule indeed to keep your investments for the longer period and if you wish to cash in, select the right time to cash in.
2008 Investing for the Future!!!
I am close to sixty-five and I have a lump sum of ten thousand pounds to invest. Should I put it in the bank slowly and gradually use it or should I invest in art, the business I knew well and offered higher returns than any stocks and shares or interests. It was not a hard decision to make and so I started looking for the best possible investments around. It was the time when we all knew that the future belonged to South East Asia and it was no hard a decision to make.
Invest in SE Asian art. Chinese art was going through the roof and so Vietnamese art was a possibility, if I could find anything to invest in the art of Vietnam.
MAI THU TRUNG
There were four pieces of the artist in one sale in France. I liked the two small paintings of a boy and girl, which I bought for a total of roughly 5000 pounds. It was a good price to pay for them and I hoped with time, ten to twenty years, they would appreciate and at least double my investment. It was a reasonable expectation and as I could see from the movement in prices of Vietnamese art, it was very likely to get it right.
2012 Wrong Decision, Wrong Results
Following the market in Hong Kong was not hard and I was not disappointed in the steady improvement of the prices of the art of Mai Trung Thu. By 2012 I decided to cash in my investments. I broke the rules , any rules, and speedily I sent the two small paintings of Mai Thu to Hong Kong for sale at Sothebys. I was hopeful, I was apprehensive and it was not that easy to say, they will sell well.
The sale happened and I was a disappointed seller. One painting sold for £3500 net and the other one failed to sell. It was a weird sequence of events and I could not understand it at all. One sold, one unsold? What happened and why I had no idea; I accepted the result and life carried on. I had back 3/4 of my investment and still another painting to sell later. Two years later, I asked Sothebys to sell the unsold painting, which they did. The second painting realised £4500 and that was a great relief. The investment of 2008 returned me 50% over six years. it was not bad but not what I thought it would be in 2008 with one caveat. it was over six years not ten, not twenty years.
Vietnamese art 2017-2018
I kept watching the upward trend of prices in Vietnamese art over the last few years as i still have three small value paintings of Vietnamese artists. It has been going from strength to strength and the latest results are really impressive. The artists of Vietnam born in 1910-30 are now the masters of the art of the country and they are selling at auction at very high prices. However, the prices of the art of Mai Thu were more of interest to me and more of a real punch in the stomach. Mai Thu has gone up another gear or two and from 15,000 pounds for similar works I sold in 2008-2012 they went to 25,000 at Christies the other day.
I am haunted by the thought that I let go of two master pieces that could be worth 50,000 pounds now. I was impatient and I look at the results of my impatience and go sick in the stomach!!
I broke the rules of the game and did not wait for at least ten years but at the same time I console my self in relief. I have another issue similar to the one I had to face in 2008. Do I sell the three paintings of Vietnam I invested in in 2009 and 2013 or do I keep them for ten years at least? What shall I do now with these paintings that seem to be going higher and higher in value and allow me a very healthy return and as things stand right now, much better that in 2008 and 2012 and 1214.
I am sitting on the fence at the moment but I do worry that art is like stocks. They go up and down too. Vietnam is a country of steady progress and hard working people and that gives me hope and patience that there is more to come in the next few years. buying art at good prices is not easy. Selling such art is harder because you have to get the timing right.
I cannot afford another similar mistake I made with the Mai Trung Thu paintings!!
PETER CONSTANT
