Mintus is a good choice of platform for a sophisticated investor that’s looking for an alternative investment to add to their existing portfolio. The platform is exceptionally easy to use, with a quick sign up and verification process. Once in, there’s plenty of information about the artwork available to purchase shares of, including graphs of previous valuations, details about the authenticity, exhibition history and investment rationale.
Pros
- Get access to valuable artwork as an investment
- No art expertise required
- Allows you to diversify your portfolio
Cons
- High minimum investment
- Only two pieces of artwork currently available to invest in
Mintus is a new investment platform that lets you invest in art without having to fork out thousands of pounds on a single piece. Instead, you can buy fractions of artwork, sharing your investment with other investors. You don’t have to worry about buying, storing, insuring or selling the artwork, as this is all dealt with by Mintus’ experts and covered by the fees you pay. We’ve explored how Mintus works, how Mintus is different to buying art and what you’ll pay to invest in art with Mintus.
What is Mintus?
Mintus is an investment platform that lets you buy fractions of major artwork, letting you diversify your portfolio more than you could with a typical investment broker. You can choose the individual piece of artwork that you’d like to invest in and choose how many shares of it you’d like to buy. Mintus deals with sourcing the art, storage, valuation and selling. It is valued annually, at which point you have the chance to sell your share on the secondary market to other investors.
Mintus’ experts aim to sell the artwork at its peak to make you the best profits it can. When it decides to sell, you’ll either make a profit or a loss on your original investment — at this point, Mintus takes its fee.
It’s important to note that Mintus is an alternative investment platform — the art that you can invest in on the platform is only valued and available to sell on the secondary market once per year, making it relatively illiquid (i.e. not convertible to cash quickly and/or easily). This makes these types of investments riskier than not very easy to sell), your investments with Mintus hold more risk than other kinds of investments such as shares or funds.
If you’re just starting out with investing, take a look at our
guide to beginner investing to find out some investments better suited to beginners.
To invest in art with Mintus you’ll need to either be a “sophisticated investor” or have a high net worth. This allows you to diversify your funds appropriately and understand the risks involved.
How does Mintus work?
Mintus is able to fractionalise paintings with a relatively new process called “securitisation”. This is where a holding company is created for a piece of artwork so that individual shares can be sold. Investors own a share of the company that owns that one piece of artwork.
Mintus is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority.
What type of art does Mintus offer?
At the moment, Mintus only has two pieces of art available on its platform.
Self Portrait by Andy Warhol
The first is Andy Warhol’s Self-Portrait
Self Portrait was painted in 1966. Warhol has a long running exhibition history and is currently one of the top contemporary artists for his sales, having achieved auction sales of more than £100 million every year from 2009 to 2019.
The Outcast by George Condo
Secondly, it’s got George Condo’s The Outcast
This piece, from 2018 is oil and pigment stick on linen. Condo works with many mediums and produces a range of different types of artwork — some might recognise him as the artist behind the cover art for Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
How much does Mintus cost?
When it sells a painting, Mintus takes 1% of the total sale and 20% of the profits. The rest is split between the owners of the painting.
For example, say Mintus owned a painting that cost £1,000 to buy. It decides to fractionalise the painting and sell 1,000 shares for £1,000 each.
One investor, Sandra, might own 5 shares which she paid £5,000 for.
When Mintus chooses to sell the painting, it gets £2 million for the painting, so the painting grew by 100% over the course of the investment.
Mintus takes 1% of the total sale (1% of £2m is £20,000) and 20% of the profits (20% of £1 m is £200,000). The remaining £1.78 million is then split between the investors at £1,780 per share, a profit of £780. This gets Sandra £8,900 on her original £5,000 investment, a profit of £3,900.
Is art a good investment?
It can be! We’ve been creating art for as long as humans have been on this earth, with early art including cave paintings and statuettes. Some art is known to hold significant value — Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa was assessed at $100 million (£87.8 million) in 1962, which translated to around $900 million (£790 million) in 2021 once inflation was considered.
The key is in knowing which art is likely to rise in value — sadly, your child’s masterpiece from nursery probably doesn’t make the cut, but it looks great on the fridge. Art experts will have a good understanding of the industry and be able to identify which art could be a viable investment. If you’re not an art expert, a platform like Mintus could be a good call as you’d benefit from Mintus’s art experts.
Shares vs art: which should I invest in?
Most art investors will already hold a significant and diverse portfolio of shares and funds. If you’re trying to decide which of the two you should invest in then art isn’t a very wise choice as it doesn’t allow for an appropriate amount of diversification.
Here are some of the key facts about investing in art and shares.
| Risk | Medium | High |
| Valued | Daily | Annually |
| Liquidity | Medium- High | Low |
| Investment amount | Any amount | £3,000+ |
| Additional considerations | Fees, including foreign exchange fees | Storage, insurance, theft and fees |
All investing should be regarded as longer term. The value of your investments can go up and down, and you may get back less than you invest. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. If you’re not sure which investments are right for you, please seek out a financial adviser. Capital at risk.
