Investments in art and culture

Carla Passino wrote in Country Life (13th March 2013) about the Knight Frank’s Luxury Investment Index. Her conclusion is that passion-driven investments have significantly out-performed more traditional assets such as the FTSE 100 or the property market. 

With the exception of furniture, all enthusiasm-led purchases have done well, presumably because there has never been so much interest in art and culture. Stamps have more than trebled in value. Rare coins have risen significantly. The ultimate in collecting indul­gence, classic cars, has had a turbo-charged performance. The only asset to have performed better than Classic cars is gold.

How assets appreciated in the decade to September 2012:
Gold                                          434%
Classic cars                                395%
Coins                                        249%
Stamps                                      217%
Fine art                                     199%
Jewellery                                  140%
Prime central London property     104%
Chinese ceramics                        85%
Watches                                    76%
Prime New York property             73%
FTSE 100                                    54%
Furniture                                  -18%

Nothing tells the story of appreciating collectibles more than a pastel version of The Scream 1895 by Edvard Munch. It fetched $120 million at Sotheby's in New York last year, setting a new world record for a work of art sold at auction. Experts had expected the masterpiece to break new ground since its presale estimate of $80 million was the highest ever listed at Sotheby's.

Edvard Munch

The Scream, 1895
79 x 59 cm 

Sold at Sotheby’s New York in May 2012

I am assuming for the purpose of this post that Knight-Frank's asset-appreciation figures are accurate and universal. And very useful to know! But there is something uneasy about believing that “if you follow your heart, the money will come”.

A passion-driven investment seems like a contradiction in terms. I am saying it because passion has to do with the love of collecting, usually based on aesthetic pleasure or historical importance. One sentence will make that clear. “Stamps are quietly building a following among wealthy investors, many of whom are not actually collectors”. If those wealthy investors are buying stamps because of the stamps’ rate of appreciation, and not because they love collecting stamps, where does the passion come in? I may as well buy pork bellies, as long as pork bellies are appreciating rapidly.

My collecting passion is for 18th and 19th century French, German, Austrian, British and Czech porcelain. But if these art objects are not appreciating very well, I should probably lose my passion for old porcelain and simply invest in another area of collecting. Or I should separate passion from investment and clearly differentiate between the two. In the latter case, “following one’s heart and the money will come” is not meaningful.

Dana International - best Eurovision performance ever!

The Eurovision Song Contest has been broadcast every year since starting in 1956 and is one of the longest-running television programmes in the world. 600 million people across the globe watch each year, including my family. Well done Denmark for their great success this week.

**

In 1970, Ireland’s Dana Rosemary Scallon (born 1951) unexpectedly won Eurovision. Her song, a very soft, passive version of All Kinds of Every­thing, was Ireland's first ever victory in this very important competition. Dana, as she was known, was a teenage school student, Catholic, anti-women’s rights in abor­tion, contrac­ep­tion and divorce, and later married with four children.

In 1967, Dana’s family had moved to the Bogside, an area in the shadows of the historic city walls of Derry in Northern Ireland. The Bogside was a majority-Catholic area within a Protestant-British state which probably explains the long and terrible history of unrest in Dana’s home town in the late 1960s and early 1970s. And it also probably explains why Dana’s victory was so sweet for Catholic Irish citizens.

The other Dana, Dana International (born 1969) is an Israeli-born pop singer of Yemenite Jewish parents. Born Yoram, he was the youngest of three children and was named after an uncle who had been massacred by Arab terrorists. 

Dana International in feathers

winning for Israel, 1998

Dana International could not have been more different from Ireland’s Dana. The Israeli lad came out as a transsexual when he was barely into his teens and underwent sex reassignment surgery in London in his mid 20s. Could the very gorgeous Dana International have known at that stage that she was going to have an unlikely win in Eurovision and follow in the footsteps of Ireland’s very plain Dana?

In 1998 Dana International was selected to represent Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest with her song Diva. Diva was an amazing song about strong women in history:

“Viva nari'a, viva Victoria, Afrodita
Viva la-Diva, viva Victoria, Cleopatra”.

Dana International came onto the Eurovision stage in Birmingham, with confident movement, fabulous legs, fabulous dress, amazing voice and jazzy lyrics, and took the audience’s breath away. There was nothing passive about this Dana! Every Jewish viewer in the world (except perhaps for the most religious) prayed to whatever god they had ..for a win for Dana International. Gays, straights and transsexuals thought their moment in the sun had arrived. Jordan and the other middle eastern countries censored her performance and blocked their state-run television programmes whilst the Jewish performer was on stage. Yet she won anyhow!

Dana International released Diva as a single in Europe and the song climbed towards the very top of the hit parade in the UK, Sweden, Belgium, Finland, Ireland and the Netherlands. She later represented Israel in Eurovision for a second time, but never quite reached the giddy heights of 1998.

For Israel's gay community, Dana International's victory in the Euro­vision song contest was a turning point. When Israelis celebrated Dana International's victory in the streets of Tel Aviv that night, people started to recog­nise that there was a big gay community, full of talent and colour.

Eurovision’s own history page said that Time magazine chose her as one of the important people in the world. Dana International's story is not only the story of a successful singer; it is a rare and in­sp­iring story about courage. She completed the cultural revolution that she started with her first album; a symbol of liberalism and human rights.

Dana,

winning for Ireland, 1970.

Napoleon, Nelson, Menzies ...and Newcastle, Australia

Leonard Joel Auctioneers in Melbourne provided this historical evidence, based on Royal Marines Historical Society records (see reference). The auction is on 19th May 2013.

Charles A.F.N. Menzies (1783-1866) was born in Perthshire in Scotland, the son of an army captain. The young lad was educated at Stirling and, at age 15 commissioned as a second Lieutenant in the Royal Marines, serving on HMS Holden with Lord Nelson's squadron off Boulogne during the blockade of the French Invasion Fleet.

In 1803 Menzies sailed on HMS Calcutta to transport convicts to Australia and shortly after was promoted to lieutenant. In 1804 he was in com­mand of a detachment of marines that crushed an uprising near Castle Hill in New South Wales by a group of Irish convicts, who were political prisoners from an earlier uprising in Ireland. The Australian skirmish must have been horrible.

In March 1804 Governor Philip Gidley decided to separate the worst offenders to establish a new settlement on Coal River. He accepted Lieutenant Menzies' offer to found and take command of the new settlement. The group sailed from Sydney on the Lady Nelson and two other small ships, and soon arrived at the new settlement that Menzies initially named Kingstown, but was re-named Newcastle by Governor King. From the very beginning of this small settlement, Newcastle was to be a work camp, from which coal and timber would be taken for the benefit of the main settlement in Sydney.

General Sir Charles Menzies with sword, by Daniel Cunliffe
Oil on canvas, 54 x 38 cm, 1843
Royal Marines Museum in Hampshire

Although still only in his early 20s this Royal Marines officer acquitted himself well and by the time he resigned his position in March 1805 to return home to Britain, Newcastle was estab­lished.

Menzies resumed active service soon after returning home. He commanded the Royal Marines attached to HMS Minerva and was involved in many actions. In June 1806 Menzies was in one of the Minerva's boats that were responsible for cutting out five boats from under Cape Finisterre, the Spanish scene of many naval actions during the Napoleonic wars. He led a landing party which rushed the fort; in fact because Menzies was the first to enter, it was he who lowered the enemy's colours and safely raised the British flag.

In July 1806 he planned an attack on a barge that captured a Spanish privateer and was instrumental in cutting out a Spanish vessel of war, landing at the Spanish Bay of Arosa and taking prisoners. Menzies also led his men at the capture of Fort Guardia.

In 1813 Menzies was promoted to Captain of the Royal Marine Artil­lery. In 1817 he married the daughter of the physician to the Duke of Gloucester and had children. His career progressed smoothly until he was the Colonel Commandant of the Portsmouth Royal Marines.

Menzies was appointed aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria in 1851, then knighted and appointed General in 1857. He died peacefully in old age. Clearly he a significant military man, yet I have three important questions:
1. Why was Charles Menzies given a valuable Patriotic Fund sword that displayed the crowned arms and cypher of George III?
2. What was Charles Menzies’ importance to early Australian history?
3. Why did the sword come to Australia?

Since 1803 Lloyd’s Patriotic Fund has worked closely with armed forces charities to identify the individuals and their families who are in urgent need of support. The contributors created the fund to give grants to those wounded in service to the Crown and to set up annuities to the dependents of those killed in action. The Fund’s prizes, awarded to those British combatants who went beyond the call of duty, could be money, a sword or a piece of silver plate.

Charles Menzies was an obvious candidate for a Lloyd’s Patriotic Fund award. Not only was he brave and full of leadership; Menzies also led his men at the capture of Fort Guardia in 1806 when he was severely wounded and his right arm was amputated. He received a sword from the Fund.

Lloyd’s Patriotic Fund sword
Awarded to Lieutenant Charles Menzies of HMS Minerva, 1806
Leonard Joel Auctions, Melbourne 

His sword has a curved single-edged hollow-ground blade. The blue ground is intricately etched and gilt with a naval trophy, figures of Britannia and Hope, the crowned arms and cypher of George III, cornucopia and flora. The inscription says 'FROM THE PATRIOTIC FUND AT LLOYDS TO LIEUT. CHARLES MENZIES OF THE ROYAL MARINES, FOR THE DISTINGUISHED COURAGE & BRAVERY DISPLAYED BY HIM IN COMMAND OF THE ROYAL MARINES AT THE STORMING FORT FINISTERRE, BEING THE FIRST WHO MOUNTED THE BREACH AND PLANTED THE BRITISH COLOURS ON THE RAMPARTS ON THE 22ND JUNE - RECORDED IN THE LONDON GAZETTE OF THE 15TH JULY 1806.

There is an engraved inscription 'R. TEED Dress Sword Maker to the PATRIOTIC FUND Lancaster Court STRAND'; a red leather belt with embroidered silver-gilt thread, with gilt mounts, bosses in the form of lion's heads, and a fitted mahogany case lined with blue velvet.

Charles Menzies did not have this sword during his time in Australia. He had already returned to Britain in 1805 and was not awarded his Lloyds Patriotic Fund award until 1806. But any direct physical links with the larger-than-life characters whose energy helped build Australia are rare and to be treasured. Charles Menzies had an important role in establishing Newcastle, so the good burghers of Newcastle want the sword to rest there. It could sit next to the Menzies Commission, the original document appointing Lieutenant Charles Menzies and the Royal Marines to command and superintend the settlement of Newcastle. Signed by Governor King in March 1804, this ink-on-vellum warrant was presented to the Newcastle School of Arts in 1930 by a British family.

How did the sword get to Australia’s most famous and long serving prime minister Sir Robert Menzies (1894–1978)? Apparently the sword had been given to the prime minister by a British relative in the 1950s, believing he was related to the famous General Sir Charles Menzies. No evidence was found to support the claim, but the sword nonetheless remained in Australia for many years at one of the prime minister’s clubs in Melbourne. If the London-based relative wants the sword back, he needs to bid at the Leonard Joel auction this week (estimate: $80,000-120,000). 

Reference: 'The Battle of Hernai and General Sir Charles Menzies, Daniel Cunliffe's Royal Marine Artillery Paintings by Major Alastair Donald', Royal Marines Historical Society, The Sheet Anchor, Volume XXII No.2, Portsmouth, 1997.