Masterworks — Attraction in New York

Signed up because I was curious about the whole thing and they advertise being able to invest on your own, at your leisure. I wouldn't say I did my due diligence (it's pretty hard to do with experiences/companies like this) but

I did scroll through the different terms they provided after agreeing to schedule an "interview" with one of their advisors. This is a mandatory part to unlocking all features of the site (something they don't tell you before starting the process).

The terms explicitly said there wouldn't be any obligation to purchase anything during the phone call, that these advisors don't make money from any purchases, and that there is a conflict of interest because they do work for Masterworks.

That said, if you decide not to purchase anything while on the phone with the advisor, they will not fully unlock your account and you will not be able to make purchases on your own timetable.

Minimum purchase of anything is $500; which would've been helpful to know prior to initiating anything. None of that is in the fine print. How accessible investing in art becomes with a minimum that sizable is debatable. But I get it, you want to further differentiate yourselves from the Robinhoods and Crypto's of the industry...fine. Just be upfront about it. You won't lose the demographic you're looking to attract plus everybody (including your employees) waste less time.

They talk a good game about all their successes, but make sure to question them about the ones that don't average returns in the double digits. All those shiny performance charts and graphs they show along with artwork don't mean much and they are quick to tell you that in the small print underneath, but they sure want you believe and use it as if they hold significant weight.

I haven't experienced the much of the trading marketplace section of the site yet, actually, there isn't much there. Probably because art isn't meant to be traded at stock level frequency. There is a reason it is being advertised as a medium to hold on for longer periods. I can only imagine StockX-levels of price gouging or secondhand store levels of low-balling.

As far as the emails go, I wouldn't say they are bombarding me anymore than any other business that sends you emails you didn't sign up for (purchase does not equal permission). You could argue that it's below average but still enough to be annoying. But I have yet to see an email with an "unsubscribe" link included. I'll probably just end up blocking them.

Only a very long time will tell how this pans out. There are only about a half dozen artworks on offer at a time due to all the "research and curation". So odds are low that the platform can regularly keep you engaged. Fine art as an investment is risky but still very personal regardless of how much it is commodified. And majority of it you will not be interested in very little that is in offer. Even with all the background info, it will still be a very...

Excellent app. I have always wanted to invest in art but was unable to purchase works from the artists that I love. Masterworks made that possible for me. I highly recommend it if you want to diversify your portfolio and invest a percentage of your portfolio in art or if you just an individual that wants to own a piece of art. And of course make a profit when it is sold. I'm revising my review and removing two stars for the following reason. When masterworks purchases a painting they do not offer it to you for the same price that they purchased it. An example is series 300. It was purchased for 1,405,000 and it was offered to us at 1,560,000. When I asked how masterworks makes money the individual interacted with when I opened my account told me that every year they issue a certain amount of shares and that is the management fee for the account. Which makes sense that they need to make money. However I was never told that they did not offer us the painting for the same price that they bought it. So they are making a profit on the offering (this part was not disclosed to me)and then they also make a profit by issuing more shares every year that they own. I feel somewhat deceived. When they are asked how they make money the response should be that they make a profit on the painting when they offer it to us and they also issued shares every year as a management fee. Needless to say when I inquired regarding this matter I did not receive a response. I only received a response after I told them I will be taking one star of my rating until I get a response. I immediately received a response. Basically they make money when they offer the painting cuz they bought it for a cheaper price and then the issue more and more shares every year for a management fee. So far it seems that the only people making money is masterworks and not us. Needless to say that I am stopping my investments as of now. So far I have invested over $10,000 and have yet to see a return. An update a couple of years in not even a penny back yet. And remember every year the issue more stocks that they own so it lowers the value of your investment. Be weary of this Update .A few years later and still I have yet to see a penny back. My initial investment which was over $10,000 has yet to see a return. If I had this in an s&p 500 mutual fund I have made over $5,000 profit.STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY. Nikolaos Katogiritis. STILL NO RETURN. THIS COMPANY SUCKS. FOSTER KEEP IN MIND THAT THEY HAVE NOT RESPONDED TO MY REVIEW BECAUSE EVERYTHING I SAID IS TRUE AND THEY...

Despite my excitement and optimism for this investment opportunity, I was dismayed (and disappointed) to learn that many of the attractive platform features (i.e. secondary market for listing shares for sale, ability to invest with funds from a US bank account, ability to invest directly from the website) are all 'very highly restricted' or worse, 'unavailable' to investors outside the United States. Even as a U.S. resident, platform restrictions prevent me from having access to the features that other U.S. residents can access easily. Having to arrange, amend, confirm new investments by email with a client representative is tedious, time-sensitive and unappealing. Use of a credit card for payment (to avoid the challenges of international wire transfers) results in additional expense (bank fees), again contributing to the sense that the platform is not really designed for ease of use by 'all' investors with convenience in mind. The platform may work fine for U.S. taxpayers, but for anyone else, do your due diligence before attempting an investment, as some things become clearer, only after you've made an investment 'reservation' and the site platform features become better understood. It's bad enough that one has to commit (no refunds) for an uncertain time period (while invested...for which I'm OK) but I'm very discouraged that what should have been an interesting, easy-to-use approach to acquiring fractional shares of fine art, is so cumbersome and tedious. In my view, these restrictions should have been disclosed 'upfront' during the on-boarding interview, not left to uncover, after making an investment commitment. That said, I do wish to commend Tommy (client service rep) for his assistance in unwinding and resetting the platform features to facilitate an initial...