The world of fine art is prestigious and full of potential, but also famously tricky to approach. Artwork within the financial reach of the average investor tends to be recent, and by artists still establishing their careers. Picking which assets will appreciate can feel like guesswork - unless you know that the art in question is prized by millions worldwide for its subject matter alone!

While a famous signature may be the single best predictor of a painting’s value, the common modern employment of artists to design and promote mass media franchises has created an intriguing crossover into the collectibles market.

Comics, props and memorabilia associated with global franchises like Star Wars or Batman are already attracting attention as an exciting class of alternative assets, as are trading cards and vintage video game hardware. This class of investor values the legacy of the art’s subject matter as equal or greater than the legacy of the artist themself - creating new demand for art which may have been overlooked before.

Mythic Markets offers a convenient path to investing in fantasy art, flexible enough to fit into any portfolio. Our research on collectibles shows that similar trends apply to the movement of fantasy and pop cultural art markets. So if you’re interested to try out an art investment without having to immerse yourself in gallery shows and insider gossip, fantasy art can be the perfect alternative.

What makes art a good investment?

Traditionally, advice to new art buyers has assumed that display value is still a key factor, even when looking at the purchase as an investment. This might be because art is usually a long-term investment strategy, with growth projected over decades. The good news is that 80% of contemporary art and 88% of modern and impressionist art showed growth after a 10-year holding period - so you may as well buy a piece you enjoy looking at in the meantime.

But more liquid investment options like fractional investment - where you can buy and sell shares in valuable artwork without handling the actual items - have allowed investors to look at art more flexibly. Short-term returns are more fruitful when you don’t have to cover the costs of authentication, maintenance, transport, and storage. Fractional investors can move faster to react to new taste trends or artists on the rise.

These developments have led to a renewed interest in art from private funds and other wealth management professionals, with Deloitte’s 2019 report on the industry showing 86% saw “convincing arguments” for including art assets among their offerings. By far the most popular argument mentioned was diversification - using art to secure wealth against the threat of a market crash.

Why art can be your recession insurance

Both fine art and collectibles share a significant appeal to investors assembling a diversified portfolio. Since their value is rooted in subjective sentiment, aesthetic appeal and historic significance, their price trends have very little correlation with those of the stock market or other popular asset classes; less than 30%, according to The Review of Financial Studies (Vol.29, No.4). So long as the profile of the artist or property in question remains high, growth for these assets can hold strong even in the grips of a recession.

This phenomenon can be seen in the 2020 surge of the sports card market, which has outperformed the stock market throughout the coronavirus pandemic. Or the $100 million rush in U.S. art sales over the same period. When all other assets are down in a market collapse, the abstract and subjective value of these cultural investments may make them the best possible hedge.

Fantasy art makes market signals easier

Of course, that low correlation to the general market is what makes the market for fine art notoriously deceptive, and malleable to those with power to shape the conversation around particular artists and styles. But since the appeal of collectibles trades on mass culture and widely-known properties, the equivalent market signs for those assets tend to be far less obtuse.

The success of a new movie adaptation or relaunch of a past comic series sparks predictable movement on the market for related collectibles. Recent Disney+ hit The Mandalorian caused the value of a 1980 comic starring Boba Fett to nearly double while boosting Star Wars collectibles across the board. If these trends are extrapolated to key Star Wars artwork, such as Tom Jung’s poster sketches (sold for $39K-$45K at Sotheby’s in 2019) or Ralph McQuarrie’s influential concept paintings from the original trilogy (one of which started at $100,000 in a 2018 auction), it demonstrates the appeal of such pop cultural art as an investment.

Ralph McQuarrie’s Star Wars concept paintings

Follow fantasy art on its journey from cult to culture

There is a marked tendency for the dominant popular media of today to become the revered cultural history of tomorrow, as nostalgia and influence on future works lend esteem to even the most crass commercial work. Less than a century on from the 1930s, even vintage advertising posters are sought-after antiques, while Mickey Mouse and Superman have outlasted human entertainers as dominant cultural landmarks of that decade.

Fantasy artwork also seems to be gaining cultural recognition in the wake of 1950s mass media, as can be seen by the recent appreciation of works by its 20th century masters. Classically trained painters such as Frank Frazetta, Jean “Moebius” Giraud and Phillipe Druillet got their starts illustrating the street-level mass media of their day: Golden Age comics and pulp novels featuring Conan the Barbarian or John Carter of Mars.

Phillipe Druillet’s Don Quixote — Phillipe Druillet’s *Don Quixote*

Regardless of their audience at the time, today the talent and influence of these pioneers is rightly lauded even among the fine art crowd. Frazetta’s Egyptian Queen - which was painted for a magazine cover in 1969 - sold for a record $5.4 million in 2019, shattering previous conceptions about the worth of fantasy artwork.

Mythic Markets lets you choose how to attack the fantasy art market

By offering investors a range of price points and risk levels in our marketplace, we allow them the maximum freedom to customize their strategy. Fractional investment allows you to spread the capital which would normally buy a single painting across many different pieces, offsetting the natural volatility of such assets.

Paintings by Frazetta and his ilk represent the current peak performance within this asset class, forming a blue-chip tier of items with impressive valuations and a high chance for continued growth. While opportunities to acquire such artwork are rare, Mythic Markets offers the average investor a unique opportunity for ownership in this high-performing category by breaking it into affordable shares.

Because the price of collectibles often moves with predictable trends in mass media, our team has the edge when it comes to identifying this potential. By buying artwork connected to properties which are currently high interest, or which seem set for long-term relevance, we can trade on their current recognition and value as collectibles while benefiting from any future re-evaluation of its cultural impact.

Capturing the magic of nostalgia

The best examples of such prospects are our offerings of original artwork from Magic: The Gathering, the world’s most popular collectible card game. Magic has grown its audience steadily since 1993 while often retaining players for decades, becoming a lifestyle and community unto itself. With such a large influence on the lives of these players, it makes sense that significant collectibles from the Magic subculture would start to show investment potential - including the cards themselves, such as the rare Black Lotus.

Douglas Shuler’s Demonic Tutor — Douglas Shuler’s *Demonic Tutor*

Douglas Shuler’s Benalish Hero on Mythic Markets — Douglas Shuler’s *Benalish Hero* on Mythic Markets

But the original illustrations for each card hold an even more powerful appeal, and the market for this artwork has been growing rapidly for the last 10-15 years. When the fledgling company commissioned artwork for its original Alpha print run, the artists received just $50 for each small painting. A quarter-century later, pieces like Douglas Shuler’s Demonic Tutor are iconic to millions of players and fetch $90,000 or more at auction.

Investing on Mythic Markets gives you the chance to buy shares in a curated selection of Alpha Magic paintings and other exciting offerings at the push of a button, without having to worry about overheads or arranging sales. Browse our marketplace, and start your journey into this developing corner of the investment world.

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The securities offered by Mythic Markets are highly speculative and investing in them involves significant risks, including possible loss of an entire investment. An investment could be illiquid for an indefinite period of time. No public market currently exists for the securities.

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Fantasy Art Investment Guide