EQUITY INVESTING IN CULTURE

What does an equity market player have to do with 18th century portrait artists and their paintings? A lot, if you’d ask Steve Schwarzman. Who’s Steve Schwarzman?

Stephen Allen Schwarzman is an American businessman. He’s more popularly known for being the Chairman and CEO of the Blackstone Group.

Blackstone is a global private equity firm that Schwarzman established in 1985 along with the late Peter G Peterson. If that were not credit enough, here’s more: according to the Forbes magazine, Schwarzman’s net worth added up to $53.3 billion in November 2024.

Why are we talking about him? The short answer is ‘Art’. Schwarzman is now shaking up the London art market by paying record prices to acquire paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough. Sir Joshua Reynolds was one of the most influential painters of eighteenth-century England. He specialised in portraits promoting the “Grand Style” in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. Interestingly, Reynolds’ main rival in eighteenth century England was Thomas Gainsborough–the other artist on Schwarzman’s list. Gainsborough was about feathery brushwork accompanied by a rich sense of colour. The attribute mix that contributed to the enduring popularity of his portraits.

Schwarzman, like Sir Reynolds, has earned himself an honorary knighthood by the UK government. The art he’s acquiring would go into restoring Conholt Park, a 17th century 2,500-acre estate in Wiltshire that he bought for a mammoth 80 million pounds in 2022.

What has he acquired so far?

Reynolds’ “Portrait of Lady Worsley” from the family of David Lascelles, Earl of Harewood, for about 25 million pounds. The portrait, which has been at Harewood House in West Yorkshire since the 18th century, shows a society heiress who was involved in a notorious court case after eloping with her lover.

Other than this he has also acquired Gainsborough’s portrait “Lady Bate-Dudley”. This is a 1787 painting which has been on long-term loan to London’s Tate Gallery. The price that Schwarzman paid for this one is not publicly known yet.

Schwarzman’s staff seems to have been approaching other owners of rare 18th century paintings as well. This according to people with knowledge of the London market and the Financial Times.

London seems to have been abuzz with rumours for months of an anonymous buyer bidding for works of 18th century painters at high prices. The high prices are understandable since art of 18th century has a distinct aesthetic owing to it coming just after the Renaissance. Those who hold these, do not part with them. Schwarzman’s bid would have to have been earth shattering.

Schwarzman is a connoisseur all along. He owns a Gilded Age mansion in Newport, Rhode Island that he has also filled up with works of art. He plans to convert this mansion into a museum of handpicked art.

Here’s the thing. The rich like to own works of art. It becomes a matter of pride and stature for them to acquire such works at extremely high prices over bids of rich and famous peers. And there is a market for them as well. Yieldstreet is a well-known provider of funds investing in art. One would really second guess an equity mogul into knowing much about art beyond the price it fetches. In most cases that would be precise as well. What makes Schwarzman’s investments unique is the vision to hold the under one–or a few–roofs for the consumption of the masses at large. That’s investment into give life and longevity to culture itself.