THE booming world of art has prompted an entrepreneurial duo to start a new gallery in Chipping Norton.
John Eades and fellow art collector Steven Daniels felt confident enough to launch the Albion Gallery in Chipping Norton, earlier this month.
Mr Eades said: “Our view of the art market is that it has held up well in the recession.
“We want our clients to know that even though they have to have a piece because they love it, they are not just pouring their money away.
“It’s something that will retain and increase its value.
“If you are going to spend a relatively large sum of money, you want to know it’s still going to be worth something if you want, or need, to sell it off.”
The Albion Gallery stocks paintings priced from £500-£6,000 which is a far cry from Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s painting of William Morris’s Oxford-born wife Jane which is expected to fetch a record-breaking £7m at auction next week.
Art dealer Aidan Meller of Meller Merceux Gallery group is also finding art has bucked the recession and is opening a London gallery next year to add to the two he already operates in Oxford.
He said: “Those who have money and want to invest are buying more shrewdly and carefully and that has put them onto art.
“So, in some weird way, the recession has been the best thing that has happened to us.”
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