The beginner’s guide to starting an art collection

I entered the art market as a young and hopeful (if naive) gallerist at 20, but headlines about the art market have never changed. Stratospheric prices have led to stories declaring that the market is booming, with the underlying message that, with a little luck, a fortune can be made more easily than in almost any other line of investment. The origin story behind this conviction lies in sensational sales, like Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, which was bought for $1,000 and sold for $450m – a 450,000-fold increase in under 10 years – or the rabbit sculpture by Jeff Koons, which sold for $91.1m, or the NFT by digital artist Beeple, which sold for $69m. The excitement incited by art, and the prices it attracts, creates overnight superstars in a modern world in which contemporary artist Damien Hirst, who came to the fore with the Young British Artists of the 1990s, has made more money than Picasso, Leonardo, and Monet combined during their lifetimes. Records at…