Children Collecting Art?

Dakota King, age 9, is greeted by the owners of a local gallery as they show off their newest purchases. She chose from the collection a $5,500 porcelain sculpture shaped like a basket and covered in tiny, platinum elephants. Galleries and auction houses around the country report that children who aren't old enough to drive are building collections that include works by Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Camille Pissaro, and Rembrandt. At Sotheby's in New York, an 11-year-old boy bid $352,000 for a Jeff Koons sculpture of a silver gnome.

Some teenagers are flipping art for quick profits. A few grade-schoolers are even loaning works to major museums, including Houston's Museum of Fine Arts. Children are emerging as one more niche. Collectors such as Bil Ehrlich, a real-estate developer, and Peter Brant, a film producer and magazine publisher, pay for their kids to collect works from name-brand artists. Other kids receive art allowances -- a $5,000 cap per piece is typical -- or buy art with their birthday, bar mitzvah or even tooth-fairy money. However, some dealers worry about entrusting masterpieces to occasionally grubby hands. But their are upsides to mixing kids and fine art. Families can reap potential tax benefits by putting art in a trust set up for their children. The move can sidestep a federal estate tax of up to 45% of the art's value if children had instead inherited it after their parents die.

But kid collectors say most of their friends couldn't care less about the art they are bringing home. One kid hasn't told his buddies about his Rembrandt because they're "more into skateboarding." Another says his playmates don't say much about his prized Vasquez. "They really like my baseball cards."

Source: Wall Street Journal