Artex Global Markets was founded four years ago by Prince Wenceslas of Liechtenstein and Yassir Benjelloun-Touimi, two experienced institutional and banking investors with a passion for art. The aim of this company is to facilitate the acquisition of works of art, ranging from the Renaissance period to contemporary art, in a secure and fluid manner, while being regulated and supervised by the Liechtenstein Financial Markets Authority, within the European Mifid II legislative framework. Artex Global Markets therefore acts as an MTF (multilateral trading facility), a regulated exchange, a facilitator between the initial owner of the work and future shareholders.

“For each work of art, we create a limited company that owns the work and is domiciled in Luxembourg,” explains Alain Mestat, director of marketing and communications for Artex Global Markets. “The works then become a financial product whose value changes according to the market price. What is exceptional is that this product becomes a ‘classic’ financial product, because it is subject to the same market rules as other financial products.” So, by buying shares in these companies, shareholders acquire a fraction of the work and have the opportunity to diversify their portfolio. It is also a way of democratising the ownership of high-level works of art, since the entry ticket is $100.

High-flying supervision

However, the road to achieving this result was not an easy one, and it took two years of work to obtain a regulated licence. The work proposed by Artex Global Markets meets the highest standards of due diligence. “We have surrounded ourselves with experts who have reproduced the verification procedures used by the major auction houses such as Christie’s and Sotheby’s,” explains Mestat. “We also comply with the regulations in force on the financial market in Luxembourg and, finally, we have a committee that double-checks that all the rules are correctly applied.” So there are several layers of regulations and checks to ensure that the transparency and authenticity are beyond reproach. Subsequently, purchase orders are issued by banks linked to Artex, which carry out the clearing work.

One work, one company

The works targeted by Artex Global Markets are of high value, between $30m and $50m. The first to enter the market was a work by Francis Bacon, a triptych entitled “Three Studies for Portrait of George Dyer,” dating from 1963. It depicts George Dyer, Bacon’s lover. The work was bought in 1964 by the writer Roald Dahl, who was also a keen collector of contemporary art.

It was subsequently purchased by a private collector at Christie’s in 2017 for $52m. Valued at $55m, Artex began marketing it around a year ago, issuing 550,000 shares with a face value of $100. A Luxembourg securitisation company is set up for each work of art. For this work by Bacon, it is Art Share 002 SA, run by Ursula Schmidt, Édouard de Burlet and Ronan Le Bouc. “Art Share 001 is reserved for a very important work that we are working on,” says Mestat. Art Share 003 was created for a work by Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild (809-4), dated 1994. Its last owner bought it in May 2022 at Christie's for $36.5m.

Partnerships with museums

“The works we sell are generally owned by very wealthy people. At best, they are displayed on the wall of an office or home, accessible to a small number of privileged people. But, more often than not, they are stored in free ports and are therefore not visible to the public,” explains Fabian Svarnas, CEO of Artex Services, the company that provides all the services associated with the management of works listed by Artex Global Markets. “Our aim is to democratise the ownership of works of art, but also to give them a completely different kind of visibility. The aim of Artex is really to emphasise this democratisation of ownership and exposure. That’s why we are initiating partnerships with museums that agree to present these works.”

For Bacon’s work, Artex Services approached the Musée national d'archéologie, d’histoire et d’art (MNAHA). An initial informal contact was initiated at Tefaf in 2023 with Michel Polfer, director of the MNAHA, and discussions resumed in May 2024, when Artex had a concrete work to propose. A public-private partnership was then put in place. “This two-year loan is an opportunity for the museum to have access to works by big-name artists, and thus to attract an audience on the scale of the Greater Region,” says Polfer. “It’s also an opportunity to present works that would not otherwise be accessible to the general public. Thanks to the due diligence carried out at the time of sale, we have a guarantee of the authenticity of the work, which is a security for our museum institution.”

“What’s more, it doesn’t cost the museum a penny, as everything is taken care of by Artex Services, including transport, restoration and insurance. This is an important point when you consider, for example, that an insurance policy represents 3/1,000 of the estimated value of the work, or €330,000 for the period of this loan!”

To finance these services, Artex Services takes a commission when the work is listed, which will be used over several years. “This enables us to cover all the costs associated with the work,” explains Svarnas. In return for this loan, the museum will provide educational and promotional support for the work.

A first work... but not the last

Bacon’s work, listed since 8 March 2024, is the first to be listed on the MTF. But it is announced as the first in a much longer series. “Our ambition is to introduce a new work every month,” says Mestat. “We represent a third alternative for collectors wishing to sell their works of art, in addition to private sales and auction houses. We are aiming to sell between 50 and 100 paintings, all of them big names. Our selling clients may be private collectors, but also public museums whose collections are not inalienable, as is the case in the UK and other countries, a private museum or a foundation... They may be able to keep the painting on display if they wish.”

$100

This is how much a share cost to become the owner of Francis Bacon’s work when it was marketed by Artex Global Markets. A total of 550,000 shares were issued and sold in around a month.

This article was written in for the , published on 23 October. The content of the magazine is produced exclusively for the magazine. It is published on the website as a contribution to the complete Paperjam archive. .

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