Art Collection Financing
A $4M Basquiat doesn't show up on a bank's collateral checklist. That's not a flaw in the art. It's a gap in how banks underwrite. We place art-secured loans from $1M to $100M with a network of 8,000+ private capital sources built for exactly this asset class — no cost to apply, no credit pull at inquiry, and an underwriter on the phone with you within one business day.
Apply now →Banks generally won't touch art as collateral. Three reasons: no standardized mark-to-market, no efficient liquidation path if they have to foreclose, and no internal desk that knows how to value a Twombly versus a Basquiat versus a client's mid-career regional artist. That's a staffing and liquidity problem for a depository institution, not a judgment on the asset.
Private capital solves for exactly that gap, but it solves for it with more diligence in specific places, not less. Here's what actually drives approval and terms.
Appraisal and authentication first. Lenders need a current, qualified appraisal — not a five-year-old insurance schedule. If authentication is contested or incomplete, that gets resolved or disclosed before pricing, not after.
Provenance and title, cleanly documented. Chain of ownership, any liens or prior loans against the piece, and clear title are non-negotiable. A gap in provenance doesn't always kill the deal. It usually just changes the loan-to-value the lender will accept.
Storage and insurance as collateral conditions, not paperwork. Where the piece physically sits, who has access, and what insurance is in force are underwriting inputs, not formalities. A lender securing $2M against a painting wants to know it's not hanging in a hallway with no rider.
Valuation drives structure, not headlines. A recent decline in an artist's market, a piece that hasn't been shown publicly in years, or a private sale with no comparable — none of that is automatically fatal. It usually means a lower advance rate and a shorter term, not a decline.
Because every one of those factors is deal-specific, we don't publish a rate range for this category the way we do for bridge or construction lending. Pricing gets quoted per deal, after the underwriter sees the actual asset.
A prior decline in an artist's market, a valuation gap, or a credit event on your side of the ledger is usually a structuring problem, not a dead end. Tell us the real story. Submit the details above and an underwriter will call you back within one business day, before any cost to you and before any credit pull.