The number of private art collections in Australia is growing, with Perth and Melbourne holding the highest number and value, says Chubb Personal Insurance.
"Nearly 65% of private fine art collections that we insure through our Masterpiece policy are located in Perth and Melbourne," said Australian Regional Manager of Chubb Personal Insurance, Steve Ord.
More and more, fine art investors are seeing big returns over relatively short periods of time, as demonstrated by the number of Masterpiece fine art policies that have increased in value.
Almost 50% of insurance brokers surveyed say clients revalue their collections infrequently, if at all.
"When it comes to insuring such significant investments, regular re-evaluations are crucial.
"Most insurers only ever cover to the value of the most recent evaluation which in the current market in particular, is pretty understandable.
"The value of a collection can grow considerably over a fairly short period of time so it's important to ensure the valuation and corresponding coverage is current."
Mr. Ord says a number of major private collections Chubb covers have recently doubled in value.
"And that's not necessarily the result of new additions to the collection, but the growing value of existing pieces," says Mr. Ord.
"It's not uncommon for Chubb to be seeing collections valued at more than $50 million."
The record price for an Australian painting was broken three times in 2007, starting with the sale of John Brack's The Bar for $3.12 million, followed by another Brack, The Old Time, for $3.36 million and Brett Whiteley's The Olgas for Ernest Giles which was sold at auction for just under $3.5 million.
