For esteemed art collector Arushi Kapoor, art and real estate aren’t that different.
Their values both grow over time, they each can present in a vast variety of styles and they’re both representative of their owner’s lifestyle and socioeconomic status.
Where Kapoor finds that real estate has the edge is its accessibility to the new money consumers and its transparency in the marketplace.
In an attempt to “create the next generation of art collectors,” Kapoor partnered up with Mauricio Umansky, co-founder and chief executive of The Agency, to form The Agency Art House.
“The art world works very similarly to the real estate world as an asset – art is like real estate on the wall. However, the real estate world works ethically in a very transparent corporate manner, which makes it very easy for new people that are interested in buying real estate to (do so). That’s not true for the art world,” Kapoor said.
She estimated that about four out of five of today’s top art collectors entered the space a half a century ago.
To address the barrier to entry, Kapoor posited that utilizing her vison, connections and expertise in the art world to stage homes could prove lucrative to inspiring home sales.
Meanwhile, through this work, she could form connections with a new generation of homebuyers, bring exposure to artists and provide education and fair pricing.
Clientele ‘synergy’
Known for his appearances on television hit shows “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” and “Buying Beverly Hills,” Umansky found common ground between his clientele and those Kapoor hoped to connect with.
“People today want lifestyle. They want to curate lifestyle, particularly the new money, whether it’s coming from crypto or AI or whatever,” he said.
Once this demographic is in a place to purchase a home, they want to accomplish the right aesthetic but may not have much experience executing a vision, he said.
“(The Agency Art House) has been super successful from the perspective of helping them visualize a house and what it can look like and bringing romance to a house,” Umansky said.
Appealing to consumers on both the real estate and art level establishes a symbiotic relationship through The Agency Art House, Kapoor said.
“The pool of art collectors and the pool of real estate buyers are very similar (in terms of purchase power),” Kapoor said. “So, there’s a huge synergy there and … (by hosting art) events at these houses, we get more eyes onto these houses.”
Through this partnership, The Agency will recommend The Agency Art House’s services to the seller as a way to spruce up the listing and offers the eventual homebuyer the chance to purchase art pieces placed in the home.
When examining how successful this staging is in leading to a sale, Umansky said it’s not necessarily explicit, but “as a salesperson, you know that it helps, and you have to trust that it helps,” he said.
To place pieces in a home being listed, prices typically range from between $100 and $350 per artwork per month with a three-month minimum.
For pieces valued closer to the $100,000 range, that monthly charge can go up to $1,000, Kapoor said.
Buyer investment
Since launching in late 2024, Kapoor said the firm has facilitated sales for hundreds of pieces, with the majority priced at under $100,000 and some ranging between $500,000 and $2 million.
Like a real estate broker, The Agency Art House is the middleman, receiving a cut of the proceeds which varies but generally hovers around 10%.
In addition to helping homebuyers achieve the look they want for their home, purchasing the art also serves as an investment, Umansky said. The value of the art will naturally increase over time, just like the home itself.
Dubbing art an “interesting alternative asset (because) it’s unregulated but still expensive,” Kapoor sees a turning point on the horizon for the art market which has seen some instability recently with fine-art sales down for the last few years.
“Now, collectors are buying with a long-term vision of building strong art collections that are culturally great and also hold value and have an opportunity to go up in value by a lot,” Kapoor said. “It’s cleared up the market from a lot of riffraff that has been around.”
