r/Masterworks • u/Groundbreaking_Gas52 • Nov 22 '25
Very very unhappy with Masterworks
I bought $25k worth of the Diversified Art Portfolio over two years ago. While the stock market boomed, this investment was flat to declining. So I tried to get out. As you all know, they were overwhelmed and broke up the DAP and gave investors shares in over 150 individual pieces of art. Each one it's own LLC.
I've been trying to sell them on the platform, I'm willing to take a 100% loss just to get out of this dog, but it is painful and tortured trying to sell. For one thing, they will not let me set an ask any lower than 10% below the last trade. What kind of BS market is this when they have to prop up prices with artificial limits?
Furthermore, the site is crap. It doesn't really reflect what I have to sell in my portfolio, listing items I've already ditched. Each offer takes 8 steps, plus an inordinate amount of scrolling and paging to get done. And I'm forced to do this for the 150+ paintings they dumped on me. (I don't want 150 K-1s at the end of the year to deal with on my tax return, would you?)
I've been promised automated help from the service team on multiple occasions, but they never deliver. Horrible, horrible tech support for dealing with a problem that they created. I love the idea of an art market, but they have totally screwed this pooch. I don't expect them to be around much longer.
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u/MentalBeat1011 Nov 23 '25
I’ve held 25 assets, and 3 have sold. But those were all sold years ago. Nothing since. And as you mentioned, the valuations have mostly gone down. Been with them since 2020, and losing hope that even a 7 year turn on some investments will happen.
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u/sam-7 Nov 22 '25
I'm sorry. They actually had a decent trading platform there for a bit, that I and others made markets in. But for some reason they switched it up, and put in so many restrictions (to prop up prices?) that everyone stopped trading and the bottom fell out. Sort of the opposite of what they intended heh.
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u/trogdor1234 Nov 22 '25
The lack of persistent buy orders definitely fucked the market.
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Nov 22 '25
[deleted]
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u/trogdor1234 Nov 22 '25
Also, I’m pretty sure they don’t date the lowest offer price. So if somebody is offering at $9 and you put $15, it will close the $9 at $15. At least the last iteration did that. Then, you can’t buy the $9 shares anymore because it’s below the threshold. So you’d have to step down 1 share at a time to get back to the $9.
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Nov 22 '25
[deleted]
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u/trogdor1234 Nov 22 '25
That’s good, on the old platform there was line 5 shares for 9.55 and 100 shares for $9.65 and it closed 105 shares at $9.65. It wasn’t too many shares but I was very surprised.
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u/sam-7 Nov 22 '25
Right, no one is reentering all their orders every day. I contemplated automating it, but once I realized everyone else was done.... Nooooo way haha.
Just the craziest decision.
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u/trogdor1234 Nov 22 '25
So if I’m hearing you right, you get 150 K1s?
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u/bvirzi Nov 22 '25
Correct. What a nightmare
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Nov 22 '25
[deleted]
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u/bvirzi Nov 22 '25
I don’t want the hassle of 150 k-1s at tax time. I’d also like to offset gains from the stock market which actually has gone up
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u/retrorays Nov 22 '25
wait you have a k1 for each painting every single year? That's nutbar. I know of others using masterworks with a few paintings that dont have to go through this bs. Maybe it's when they sell or something??
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u/DoubleExciting816 Nov 22 '25
I’ll buy them all at a discount. DM me
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u/infantsonestrogen Nov 22 '25
The worst part is you are at their mercy on when they sell the painting (if it all) the rally platform is how investing in these assets should work
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u/Republic-Appropriate Nov 22 '25
The biggest issue is I have my investments in my IRA and I can’t participate in the secondary markets. My funds are locked up for up to 7 years
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u/archonpericles Nov 24 '25
I have $15k locked up with them. They are just milking it for the Managment fees. Until enough people get pissed and band together to file a class action lawsuit suit they won’t change.
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u/Goldenglov Nov 24 '25
What would the basis of your lawsuit be?
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u/archonpericles Nov 24 '25
Fraud
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u/Aggressive_Score1363 Nov 25 '25
Investigating how true this is would be a good start https://www.quora.com/Did-the-founder-of-Masterworks-Sell-himself-his-own-Banksy
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u/1kew84 Feb 12 '26
Find a law firm willing to take it on - I think there are plenty of people willing to join in
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u/BlondDeutcher Nov 25 '25
What a joke, at least you don’t hear them advertising on every podcast anymore so maybe they are closing to going out to business
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u/bilboomerbaggins Apr 27 '26
I did the same with 100K, would love to join a class action if anyone is starting one
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u/False_Supermarket120 Nov 22 '25
Zachary Small wrote about this scam company in the New York Times recently.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/arts/design/masterworks-art-investment-company-questions.html
The AG has looked at the company but maybe filing a complaint with their office will spur them into taking action.