Recently a friend of mine back in Australia bought some original artwork. Now, there are a few layers to this story. Firstly, I thought she was more a paint-by-numbers type of person, secondly I don’t think in the history of her life she has even been to an art gallery, and thirdly, based upon what she said she spent on the artwork, I did say to her, wouldn’t the money have been better spent on the back fence that you have been wanting to replace for years, and her response was, “I bought them as an investment”.

Let’s face it, stock markets are peaking or even peaked, cryptocurrencies continue to fluctuate, and inflation rates continue to remain uncertain. The search for stable, tangible assets is now starting to really be considered an overall investment strategy to mitigate return uncertainty.

While financial advisers will often recommend portfolios built on stocks and bonds, there is an ever-growing parallel universe of wealth preservation quietly maturing in vaults, galleries, and private collections. Art, gold, and jewellery represent the trinity of “passion investments”, those assets that you can see, touch, and admire, all while they appreciate in value.

For example, unlike a digital stock certificate, a Renaissance painting (or in my friend’s case two Pro Hart originals) or a 19th-century gold coin offers aesthetic pleasure, historical significance, and intrinsic value. However, each of these three asset classes operates under distinct economic principles. To invest wisely, you must understand not just their beauty, but their unique financial DNA.

Firstly, art is the most volatile but also potentially the most rewarding of the three. In the last two decades, contemporary art has outperformed the S&P 500, and based upon my research a single Basquiat painting can appreciate from $10,000 to $110 million in 30 years.

The economic driver of art is “scarcity plus status”. Unlike gold, which is chemically identical, a painting is unique and art is a Veblen good. For those who are not familiar with the term, the Veblen good comes from economist Thorstein Veblen, who coined the idea of conspicuous consumption in 1899, essentially buying things publicly and expensively to display social standing and as the price goes up, demand from the ultra-wealthy increases because the high price signals exclusivity.

However, the barriers to entry are immense. The art market is notoriously opaque, unregulated, and illiquid. Selling a masterpiece can take months or years; auction houses charge seller’s commissions of 10 per cent to 25 per cent, and buyer's premiums can add another 25 per cent to the purchase price. Authenticity is a minefield, and forgeries can even plague major galleries.

For the individual investor (not the billionaire), art requires extreme patience and from my perspective the best approach is to buy what you love. If the art market shifts, and tastes change and your painting may change in value, however you still have the joy of admiring it.

On the other hand, jewellery occupies both an aesthetic adornment and a store of wealth. However, investing in jewellery is drastically different from buying gold bullion.

When you buy a gold bar, you pay close to the spot price. When you buy a Cartier bracelet or a Tiffany engagement ring, you pay for the metal, the gemstones, the design, the brand, and the retail markup which can often be 300 per cent to 500 per cent above the melt value.

The investment rule for jewellery is brutal: never buy new. The moment a new retail piece is purchased, it loses 20 per cent to 50 per cent of its value, much like a new car driven off the lot.

The value in jewellery as an investment lies in three specific areas: rare vintage pieces (Art Deco, Victorian, Retro), signed designer estates (Van Cleef & Arpels, Bulgari, Buccellati), and high-quality loose gemstones (rubies, sapphires, emeralds).

Diamonds are a particularly dangerous investment, as the quality of lab-grown diamonds now crush the value of commercial natural stones, and only large, investment-grade coloured diamonds (pinks, blues, yellows) have shown consistent appreciation.

In a recent article in Forbes magazine, jewellers in the US noted the trend for engagement rings is that the size of the stone matters more to buyers than whether it is natural or lab-grown, and over 50 per cent of all diamond engagement rings being sold are from lab-grown diamonds, thus depreciating the overall value of natural stones (Ksonzenko, 2026).

For the serious investor, antique jewellery offers the best risk-reward ratio. A Georgian brooch or a platinum Art Deco bracelet has historical provenance that cannot be manufactured. Furthermore, jewellery provides a “stealth wealth” benefit: it can be worn across borders, stored in a safe-deposit box, or passed down through generations without paperwork. The challenge is authentication and appraisal. A single missing stone or a poor repair can halve the value of a period piece.

Concluding the trinity of passion investments is gold. Gold is the oldest form of financial insurance. For 5,000 years, from the Pharaohs to the Federal Reserve, gold has been the ultimate store of value. Its investment thesis is simple: it is the anti-fiat currency. When governments print money, inflation erodes purchasing power. Gold, which is finite and expensive to mine, tends to rise during periods of monetary uncertainty.

Gold’s primary appeal is its liquidity and universality. A one-ounce gold coin can be sold in Tokyo, London, or New York within minutes. Unlike a painting or a piece of antique jewellery, gold is fungible; one ounce of pure gold is identical to another. This makes it the safest entry point for the novice tangible-asset investor.

However, gold has significant drawbacks as a growth asset. It generates no yield. A bar of gold does not pay dividends or interest. Its value is purely speculative, and price is often emotionally driven by “fear” trades. During geopolitical crises, it soars; during periods of stable economic growth and rising interest rates (which make holding non-yielding assets more expensive), gold can be flat.

At the end of the day, the greatest advantage of art, jewellery or gold is not purely financial, it is behavioural. In an age of instant digital trades and market panic, the physical friction of selling a coin, packing a painting, or pawning a ring requires effort.

This friction is a feature, not a flaw. So next time you are about to make a trade through your brokerage account, it might be worth exploring other options to diversify your wealth.

Reference

Ksonzenko, R. (2026) How Lab-Grown Diamonds Are Redefining The Global Diamond And Jewellery Market. Forbes Magazine. Available from: https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/2026/02/12/how-lab-grown-diamonds-are-redefining-the-global-diamond-and-jewelry-market/. [Accessed June 6 2026].

• Carla Seely is the chief operating officer at Freisenbruch Insurance Services Limited and has 26 years of experience in international financial services, wealth management, and insurance. During her career, she has obtained several investment licences through the Canadian Securities Institute. She holds the ACSI qualification through the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments (UK), the Qualified Associate Financial Planner (QAFP) designation through FP Canada, and the Associate in Insurance (AINS) designation through The Institutes. She also completed a Master's Degree in Business and Management through the University of Essex.

• For further inquiries or suggested topics, e-mail: justaskcarla@outlook.com