ANDART, the art co-ownership service
Art co-ownership services have been proliferating around the world lately.
This time, we visited ANDART, which has already gathered more than 4,000 members and exceeded 130 million yen in transaction volume, drawing attention from the art world. art on’s Mahiro Kobayashi and @ishitsubutehiroshi — both art collectors themselves — visited the team to hear about the service from a collector’s perspective.
Answering our questions were founder and CEO Shiori Matsuzono and COO Chihiro Takagi. *Titles omitted below.
Matsuzono was involved with an art-related venture during her university years, later joined CyberAgent, and in September 2018 founded ANDART Inc.
The co-ownership service launched in June 2019, and to date they have handled 11 works.
Background to founding the company
Q: Please tell us about the background to founding ANDART.
Matsuzono
“I hadn’t formally studied art, but I grew up in an environment where art was close at hand — for instance, artworks had always been displayed in our home.
As web services like sharing services (car-share and the like) and crowdfunding spread, I came up with a form of art-touching service that fits the times. I founded ANDART with the aim of offering people casual opportunities to encounter art.”
Q: If you set out to build something that suits the era, what challenges do you feel the current art industry faces?
Matsuzono
“I feel the word ‘art’ has become too deified.
Predecessors have been saying ‘let’s make buying the standard,’ but the reality is that the psychological barrier between those who buy and those who don’t remains enormous. Through mechanisms that lower that threshold, I want to bring many people into the art world in a state of respect — which is something people have tried but not quite pulled off.
Since galleries’ mission is to support artists, I feel they can’t fully take a buyer’s perspective.”
Takagi
“The information that comes out of the art industry seems to operate on jargon and rules that are hard for ordinary people to grasp — the basics aren’t being communicated. Newcomers who aren’t familiar want to start by asking things like ‘what is an edition?’ Or ‘Is it OK to walk into a gallery?’ or ‘Can I ask about the price?’ — the industry’s obvious isn’t obvious to the general public. I think there’s a gap in perception.”
About the service
Q: You’ve said that ANDART is a service conceived precisely because you were outside the art industry. What kind of service is it?
Takagi
ANDART targets high-priced or large-scale works that are out of reach for individuals, and issues membership rights in small units, making it a service you can join from just 10,000 yen.
The works themselves are kept by ANDART, and we create opportunities for people to see them — for example, by displaying them in public venues. Members also enjoy privileges, and we’re considering closed events like exclusive private viewings where they can see the works directly.”
“Ownership rights” is ANDART’s own coined term — it does NOT mean ownership of the work itself, but a membership right that grants privileges.
Takagi
“It might be closer to a membership at a sports gym. It’s the right to receive privileges. If ownership were passed to the users, every action — displaying, selling — would require the consent of all members, which becomes problematic. So ownership stays with ANDART.”
As stated in the terms of service, it’s important to note that co-ownership is NOT co-holding of title.Some users on social media do think they own the work; we asked about this, and were told that they intend to communicate carefully going forward so as to avoid such misunderstandings. As for ownership of the work itself, once enough members have signed up, ANDART completes the purchase and holds the title.
Similar co-ownership services also exist overseas — in the US, UK, Singapore and so on. Some go so far as to securitize artworks as financial instruments (paying out dividends when there’s a gain on sale), but ANDART’s model is to offer privileges to beginners.
Matsuzono
“ANDART’s strength is our lineup of works. We think from the perspective of the general public and select artists known to a wide audience, and motifs that are easy to embrace. We also put a lot of care into UI/UX.”
She notes that including high-profile artists in the lineup has helped grow the user base steadily.
Q: Could you share some of the responses from members?
Takagi
“There are more people than we initially expected who share our values around the service. Members skew toward men in their 20s to 40s, with many typical salaried workers.”
Matsuzono
“The fact that repeat rate exceeds 40% suggests that we have a core fan base for whom ANDART’s service resonates. I think what’s valued is that they can experience being a collector vicariously.”
Q: How do you gather the works that resonate with users? If you have selection criteria, please share them.
Takagi
“We research both quantitatively and qualitatively, and decide along both axes. We analyze artists’ reputations and the motifs of their works. We listen to third-party collectors, gallerists, dealers, and other insiders, and refer to primary-market conditions and auction data — but right now, we aim for curation that beginners can easily understand.”
Matsuzono
“I hope we can build a worldview that is uniquely ANDART. I’d like to curate in ways that delight ANDART’s users.”
Q: Are there any artists you’re currently paying attention to?
Takagi “Since we lean toward selections that are easy for beginners to grasp, the current lineup is centered on big names — but going forward we’d like to focus on younger artists too. As an experiment, in the case of Hiroshi Mori, we also created an opportunity to hand a silkscreen work directly into the buyer’s hands.”
Matsuzono “I hope ANDART can become a stage for young artists to try new challenges. Starting with Mori’s case, we’d like to keep taking on such opportunities.”
Q: Do you personally collect art? Setting the service aside, are there any artists you’re keeping an eye on individually?
Matsuzono
“Recently I was able to add a work by Haruna Shinagawa to my collection. An artist I’m curious about is Autumn Moai — the messages that come through her work resonate with me as a woman. Keiichi Tanaami is also one of my favorite artists.”
Takagi
“I bought a work by Kurumi Kotani at her solo exhibition held at Medel Gallery. And Taku Obata, who recently had gallery exhibition opportunities, has been on my mind. I had a strong impression of him from his three-dimensional work, but the two-dimensional works I saw at his solo show were very good.”
Both are art lovers, and they showed a keen eye for trends — including graffiti-oriented and street-art works.
On the other hand, from a collector’s standpoint, the valuations are of interest. The valuations of the KAWS and Yoshitomo Nara works handled by ANDART are set higher than recent auction hammer prices.
Matsuzono
“Our pricing includes the costs of authenticity verification, insurance, and long-term storage in an art warehouse, so it can end up higher than current market prices.”
For collectors, storage space and maintaining condition become critical issues as the collection grows. In that sense, if you think of the price as including long-term storage costs, it may be an acceptable trade-off.
Q: Have there been cases of openly buying works from collectors?
Takagi
“So far no transactions have closed, but we do receive a fair number of inquiries. We hear from people via the site’s contact form and via galleries. If there are collectors who have to part with works due to space and the like, ownership would pass to ANDART, but they could retain some of the membership rights, and sell the remaining rights within our service to other members.”
Matsuzono “We hope people will consider it as one avenue for divesting, of course. In the case of Masatoshi Kumagai, the founder of GMO Internet who provided the KAWS work to ANDART, we received a comment that ‘sharing wonderful works through co-ownership creates opportunities for many people to view them, which in turn contributes back to society.’”
YOU AND ART
We also asked about their other service, “YOU AND ART.”
Matsuzono
“We provide a co-ownership service, but at heart we also want to encourage ownership. ‘YOU AND ART’ is a service for people who want to own.
We reach out to galleries and artists to recruit works and get direct confirmation on handling them. We also source from overseas dealers.”
For Takanosuke Yasui, they coordinate with MAHO KUBOTA GALLERY, and for Haruna Shinagawa, with EUKARYOTE — in each case working through the gallery to which the artist is affiliated. Daniel Arsham’s works are sourced from overseas galleries.
Q: How will ANDART evolve going forward?
Matsuzono
“Eventually we’d like to handle works on the scale of several hundred million yen. We want to build an environment in Japan where people can view co-owned works — through public exhibitions, viewings we organize ourselves, and so on.
We’re also thinking about how to connect young artists with more people, and how to add value. Going forward, we want to expand our lineup of young artists and have them use ANDART as a PR platform even before they join a gallery.”
Takagi
“Once co-ownership takes root, we want to expand a service focused on collecting young artists, and ultimately develop the two in tandem.
This summer we plan to launch a service for buying and selling membership rights. It will be a peer-to-peer service where users can freely set prices and trade membership rights.”
When ANDART sells a work, holders may be able to have their membership rights bought back — though the price may differ from the purchase price of the ownership right.They spoke passionately about wanting to instill a sense of ownership over collecting — spending on art in ways other than paying at a museum.
Q: Finally, do you have a message for art collectors?
Matsuzono
“If you have any thoughts on the service, we’d love to hear them. It would make us happy if you’d consider offering works with the sense that you’re sharing the work with society, and giving something back.”
Takagi
“It’s a service for beginners, but I imagine collectors also have many artists they’re curious about, even if not to the point of hanging them at home. It would make us happy if co-ownership joined ownership as one more option. We warmly welcome consignment inquiries as well.“
“At ANDART, we plan to open sales of the ownership right for a new work at noon on July 29 (Wed). *Sales for this piece have now closed.
The next work is a legendary silkscreen by Banksy — released just before his online gallery POW closed for good.
Even if you don’t usually consider collecting Banksy, we hope you’ll try a new relationship with a work through co-ownership.”
▼ Banksy’s work page is here:
https://and-art.jp/works/13
Reflections after the interview, from a collector’s perspective
ANDART is a new service where you can engage with works by top-tier, high-profile artists without paying a fortune. Through the interview with the two of them, we deepened our understanding of the service.
Regarding the co-ownership service they currently offer as their main pillar, the valuation of each work includes various operating costs on top of the market price at the time of sale — so it doesn’t seem to be a service where you should expect immediate asset value.
In the first place, co-ownership does not grant ownership of the work but is positioned as a membership right that carries privileges. Thought of as a service where you can gather information before buying art and experience being a collector vicariously, it’s interesting. By analogy, there are services that let you simulate stock trades virtually before actually trading; thinking of it in similar terms may make things clearer.
They are also expanding a retail shop that provides a route into actual collecting, and it was fascinating to hear about their attention to young artists and their enthusiasm for expanding the service going forward.
We’re keeping an eye on this as a new proposal for experiencing art beyond collecting.
Interview cooperation: @ishitsubutehiroshi
Interview date: July 14, 2020
Overview
ANDART
Co-ownership service
Official site: https://and-art.jp/
YOU AND ART
Art select store
Official site: https://buy.and-art.co.jp/
