Art Level Oriental Rug Market Big Beneficiary of High End Investor Flight To Precious Tangible Assets
Business Wire, July 26, 2010
Collectors Virtually Line Up For Claremont Rug Company
Intercontinental Acquisition
OAKLAND, Calif. — The continuing disenchantment with financial investments has proved to
be a major boon to Claremont
Rug Company and its clients who are collectors of 19th
century, art level Oriental rugs.
Citing the interest in his latest acquisition, Claremont president Jan
David Winitz said the demand for the best of the best was
unprecedented in his 30 years in the business.
We have nearly three dozen waiting lists for clients who are seeking
rugs to add to their art collections and who are telling us that they
are buying them as they move away from other investments, he said.
Winitz said that in the 90 days since he had unveiled the 175-rug Intercontinental
Collection, the Gallery had sold nearly 80 percent of the pieces.
The carpets range in value from $20,000 to $500,000 per piece.
Normally, it would take almost a year to sell that percentage of a
major collection. But frankly our clients are reflecting what is going
on at the high end of investing and art collecting, he said. Rugs from
the Second Golden
Age of Weaving are precious tangible assets that represent one of
the last undervalued segments of the art market.
A recent two-page feature article in the Wall Street Journal as well as
pieces in Worth Magazine and The Financial Times of London have whetted
collectors appetites as they have highlighted the importance, scarcity
and artistry of museum-level 19th century carpets. There has
always been a knowledgeable core of collectors, said Winitz, who is
recognized as a leading global authority, but the secret is now out.
Great rugs augment other forms of great art and they are still
considerably undervalued versus comparable forms of traditional art in
collections.
One highly publicized expression of the burgeoning interest in art level
rugs was the recent sale of a 17th century Laver Kirman rug
for $9.59 million at a Christies auction in London
oriental rugs
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