A&F Markets Launches Art Exchange
A&F markets will offer shares in works by modern artists such as Anselm Kiefer, above. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian
Culture-lovers who cannot afford to hang a modern master on their wall will soon be able to buy shares in art works as the first art stock exchange prepares to open in the French capital.
Paris-based A&F Markets wants to allow investors to buy and sell shares in art works as they would any other commodity, with prices quoted on a public index. The shares will start at €10 for works valued at more than €100,000 (£85,880). The scheme will only trade in modern pieces from the late 19th century onwards, including painting, sculpture, video installation and photography.
The project, expected to launch in January, has been secretive about its opening art works. The first pieces for sale will include a 2006 installation by the German painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer, who is based in the south of France. Also on offer is Irregular Form, a 1998 oil painting on paper by the late American artist Sol LeWitt. Those pieces are owned by galleries, but the scheme is also negotiating directly with the French painter and sculptor Richard Texier for one of his works.
The company’s founders are initially working with about six Paris galleries but are seeking to expand in the UK, China and across Europe. They hope to attract financiers and investors who might previously have been wary of the art world’s volatile and sometimes confusing prices. The scheme is also hoping to attract investors tempted by French tax breaks on art.
The idea has been lampooned by some cultural commentators, who warn that treating art like a financial commodity debases an artist’s work. Patrick Bourne of the London-based Fine Art Society said the idea was a “stinker”. But Pierre Naquin, the 26-year-old French entrepreneur behind it, argued that new investors in the art world would be “reassured” by a marketplace that copied the financial mechanisms they were used to. He said: “Just because someone makes an investment in art, it doesn’t mean they lose the emotional tie to the work. On the contrary, I think this will bring in new buyers, and allow people who can’t afford to pay €100,000 for their own work to take part. We’re actually opening up the market to art lovers.”
Preparation of the budget: France: reformed procedures, more modern and more transparent management
What field invest? What expenses favour? By France, development and presentation of the budget of the State have evolved considerably in recent years to meet democratic clarity and effectiveness objectives.
From the State budget corresponds to all its resources and its expenditure. The bulk of the resources comes taxes and the taxes paid by the citizens and businesses. Expenditures correspond to the money spent by the State to finance public action.
Finance Bill
The Constitution of 1958 laid down specific rules for the presentation and adoption of the budget, including the legal name is “project finance law” (PLF). Each year, the Government presents in the fall before Parliament the draft budget for the following year bringing together in a single document, all government spending and revenue forecasting France.
Parliament, assisted by financial authorities decided to reform the State budget tracking adopting in 2001 the organic law on the finance laws, the LOLF, real “financial constitution of the State”, applied for the first time in 2006. Budget is now structured by broad public policy, missions, in order to provide a greater readability.
A greater legibility of public policy
The rules adopted in the framework of the LOLF helped to make the presentation more understandable State budget. Previously, government spending were presented by “nature”: staff expenditure, operational intervention (example: economic aid), investment (example: road construction) as well as the interests of debt repayment.
Since 2006, the State budget is presented by major public policies through a cutting by 30 “missions”. For example, “security”, “education” missions are divided into more finely programs. Thus, the “security” mission involves two programs – “national policy” and “gendarmerie nationale” – and “education” mission, six programs, among which “public school education of the 1st degree”, “student life”, or even “teaching technical agricultural.
Categories: Taxation Tags: budget, France, Management, modern, Preparation, procedures, reformed, transparent
The French foreign tax
Taxation of foreign English responds to some specific rules it is important to know, before his departure, or to prepare for his return. “Living except for France” taxes site page details all the steps to follow. The site of the House of the French overseas also has a section dedicated to special expatriate tax conditions: tax domicile, tax conventions with France paiement… and tax arrangements
Eric Cantona’s Bank Protests
Eric Cantona had claimed revolution was possible if people collectively empited their bank accounts on the same day.
He was once a great goalscorer with a mean kung fu kick, but today Eric Cantona didn’t have enough boot to destroy the banking system.
Categories: Financial Tags: BNP Paribas, Eric Cantona, FIFA 100, Football in France, Investment banks, Rachida Brakni
Cash Cow Investment
Known for their mistrust of banks, the French are not just stuffing money into mattresses in these anxious days of recession and minuscule interest rates, they are also putting their hard cash into cows.
For Pierre Marguerit, cows make a safe, secure investment, allowing for long-term growth from a renewable resource. Cow contracts are hardly new, but go back to Richard Cœur de Lion (Richard I). The French word for livestock, “cheptel,” is the root for “capital.”
These are not literally cash cows. However, Mr. Marguerit says his investment in Holsteins will bring a 4 to 5 percent return a year after taxes, based on natural growth, i.e. the sale of their offspring. That compares to the present interest rate of 0.75% on the basic French bank account.
Mr. Marguerit says that last year his business went up by 40 percent, and so far this year, it has practically doubled. He is the managing director of Élevage et Patrimoine, a cattle investment firm in eastern France, and president of Gestel, which works with farmers and investors.
Categories: Financial Tags: bank account, Élevage, EnVoiture Simone, EUR, Europe, food, France, Franche Comte Elevage SCA, French Association for Investment, Gestel, head, Jérémie Romand, Lyon, managing director, Marguerite, massage, Patrimoine, Patrimoine Participations, Pierre Marguerit, president, Richard Cœur de Lion, Richard Durand, Richard Lowkes
Personal Financial Rescue Plan
The current financial climate has left may people looking for a personal financial rescue plan. Particularly, those people who have decided to leave the rat-race and live their dream in France, are finding that their financial resources cannot accommodate the recent changes in currency values, investment returns and interest rates. As a result, many are coming to the conclusion that it is necessary to return to the hurly burly of work if they are to survive.
But does that mean giving up their dreams?
For some the answer is “yes” – but in my view it doesn’t have to be so.
I have been involved in several different businesses throughout my “working” career and have long held the view that, in order to survive financially, it is important to generate income from several different sources and in different currencies.
In other words, I don’t believe in putting all my “eggs” in one “basket”.
You may have noticed on this web log (blog) that there is a significant lack of advertising. Simply put, I publish the blog because I enjoy writing, I like to share my experience with other individuals and it seems that others like to read. So this present post is the nearest thing to an advertisement that I have written.
If you are considering giving up on your dreams, read on…
Who Really Rules Your World? – Part 2
One of the commentators on my post “Who Really Rules Your World?” bought this video to my attention – for which thanks goes to greenman.france.
Money as Debt
When we understand how money is created in the modern world we can then understand the main cause of many major problems: ever increasing taxation; pensions disappearing; inequitable distribution of wealth; inflation; national debt; currency crises and devaluations; recessions; depressions; and even the failure of government in a democracy to govern in the interest of its electors.
Click to continue reading “Who Really Rules Your World? – Part 2″
Categories: Financial Tags: bank, bank computers, credit, Currency crisis, Debt, Depression, Economics, Federal Reserve System, finance, Financial crises, France, Government debt, government printing money, Inflation, Macroeconomics, money, pensions, Public finance, Taxation, wealth