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By Jonas Höglund, Co-founder & CEO of Arte Collectum, as published in Insight/Out magazine #39.
The idea behind Arte Collectum comes from an old friend of mine, Niklas Belenius, a gallery owner and third generation art dealer and collector, who asked me if I was interested in setting up an art investment fund together with him. I have been working in finance since 2006 and previously always wondered why internationally well-established art, that has low correlation with other asset classes and good historical returns, had not been offered as an alternative investment fund in Northern Europe. I told Niklas that I would be happy to set up the fund but with the following prerequisites: an approved Prospectus by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority and list the fund on an exchange, mainly for transparency reasons given that the art market is not known for being highly transparent.
Arte Collectum manages two impact alternative investment funds with art as the underlying asset. The investment strategy is focused on artworks by women and cultural and ethnic minority artists who have historically been sidelined for reasons unrelated to quality. The fund units are registered with Euroclear and listed for public trading. Both funds have undergone due diligence processes and been distributed by two banks, Nordea and SEB.
One key driver of institutional interest in the art market is portfolio diversification. Historical data presented by Citi Private Bank indicates that art has low correlation with stocks, commodities, and real estate and even negative correlation with investment grade and high yield fixed income. Furthermore, art has historically served as a reliable inflation hedge, preserving purchasing power and acting as a store of value during market fluctuations. For investors and wealth managers seeking diversification, allocating capital through a regulated fund structure offers distinct operational, compliance, and risk-mitigation advantages over purchasing individual works outright. By pooling resources into a diversified fund, investors benefit from exposure to these dynamics while inherently reducing risk through a portfolio with several holdings.
The following are supporting arguments for the funds target return of 100 percent net after fees in 6 years. The Investment Committee’s access to absolute top works – acquired at significant discounts on the primary market in line with museums. The investment strategy with a focus on women and other historically excluded categories that are now “catching up” and consequently moving faster than other categories in combination with lending works to leading museums and exhibitions worldwide for the benefit of the artists, the public and the investment itself.
Operational Structure and Fiduciary Oversight
The Net Asset Value (NAV) of both funds is calculated semiannually on June 30th and December 31st. The NAV relies primarily on a third-party valuation report issued by Sotheby’s. The NAV figures are audited and published in connection with the financial statement in February, and the interim report in August of each year. Due to the unique nature of artworks, valuation is inherently challenging and third-party appraisals are typically conservative. Consequently, market value can significantly exceed the reported asset value, as demonstrated by the first fund’s first artwork divestment, which achieved a return of 2.57x the invested capital within 18 months, but was valued at acquisition price a few months prior to the divestment.
To safeguard the underlying assets, the funds use specialized, institutional-grade and museum-level climate-controlled storage facilities in Stockholm, Sweden, and Delaware, USA. This dual-location strategy optimizes logistical efficiency and sustainability by minimizing the distance and carbon footprint of international shipments.
Fiduciary oversight of the funds’ assets is maintained through a close partnership with our depositary, CSC Depositary Services. Arte Collectum continuously updates CSC of the whereabouts of the artworks and has systematically shared all required documentation and complied with reporting since June 2022.
Market Access and Acquisition Procedure
Acquiring highly sought-after primary market artworks requires an established reputation. Arte Collectum’s Investment Committee leverages institutional-level purchasing power and has historically invested over 2 billion EUR in art combined. The committee is led by Chair Lars Nittve, Founding Director of Tate Modern in London and M+ Museum in Hong Kong, alongside Deborah Gunn, former Associate Director of Art Finance for the Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen Family Collection, and Niklas Belenius. This presence in combination with our lending program to museums and exhibitions allows the funds to acquire absolute top works on the primary market.
Arte Collectum has established a Compliance Committee which follows a regulatory framework, audits authenticity, monitors conflicts of interest, and enforce operational discipline. It is represented by senior audit, legal, and corporate finance professionals. Each acquisition and divestment requires a rigorous procedure. Upon approval from the Compliance Committee, the funds adhere to strict Anti-Money Laundering and Know Your Customer procedures across all acquisitions and divestments in relation to the seller/buyer, following thorough risk assessment and instruction frameworks. The Compliance Committee reviews and authorizes settlement by signing a protocol verifying all checkpoints and documentation before payment is processed.
Active Management
To promote the artists, build provenance for the works and make the art more accessible to the public, Arte Collectum works to lend the artworks to leading museums and exhibitions around the world, and to get them published in journals, catalogs and books. Arte Collectum’s works have for example been lent to the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, The Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., Fondation Cartier in Paris, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Albertina Museum in Vienna, among others. Notably, works from both funds will be included in the retrospective of Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian at Moderna Museet in Stockholm which opens in October 2026.
By Q2 2026, exhibitions featuring the funds’ works had attracted 1 391 944 visitors, validating the institutional quality of the underlying assets. The lending program is directed by Magnus af Petersens, Head of Curatorial Affairs, who previously served as Chief Curator at the Whitechapel Gallery in London and Head of Collection at Moderna Museet in Stockholm.
Every institutional loan is governed by a loan agreement and signed by the borrowing institution and the lender. It comprehensively regulates the terms of transport, display, and physical handling, and strictly mandates an issued certificate of insurance and incoming and outgoing condition reports. Both the signed loan agreement and the corresponding insurance certificates are transmitted to the funds’ depositary, maintaining transparency and regulatory alignment.
Arte Collectum has been interviewed and featured in Bloomberg, The Economist, Financial Times, The New York Times, Artnet, and The Art Newspaper among others. Arte Collectum’s fund structure, the investment committee’s access to works, and the investment strategy with a focus on women, ethnic and cultural minority artists in combination with lending works to museums are highlighted as unique features.
The Integration of Fiduciary Structure and Impact Return
Arte Collectum transitions art from a passion asset into a highly structured, low-correlation investment through an institutional fund framework. The funds pair fiduciary oversight – including a Compliance Committee and depositary controls – with an active museum-lending program. By capitalizing on market re-evaluations of historically overlooked women and minority artists, this strategy can seamlessly coexist with measurable social impact, offering modern investors a sophisticated mechanism to strategically and sustainably diversify portfolios.
