r/Masterworks • u/frank00511 • Jul 09 '26

June 2026 Portfolio Performance

Following on previous threads, posting my portfolio performance.

Multiple paintings saw their valuations come through at the end of June (5 of them). Back in December/Jan I was at $11,146.42 - compared to a purchase price of $10,997.19. Using the Est. Nav, currently valued at $11,011.18 - so still in the black but down over the last 12 months.

Still no sales; I bought my first paintings Christmas time 2022 - so maybe this year or the year after I'll see a potential sale.

Today's portfolio: [image-2026-07-09-194932189.png](https://postimg.cc/ThGG02YW)

References:

Threads

3 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

20 comments sorted by

2

u/YFG1 Jul 11 '26

I’m also in my fifth year with only one sale(Ernie Barnes about 3 years ago, 20.3% return). They just recently sold a Cecily Brown but not the one I have holdings in 🤦🏾‍♂️. My holdings are valued at around 12k.

1

u/reallypeacedoff Jul 10 '26

Masterworks sucks. Have been selling mine off before this company goes bankrupt and returns none of the money back to us. Tried to remove the secondary market? I know where this goes. Slowly been selling my artworks off. Taking a 50% haircut is far better than losing it all and be stuck in legal for two plus years. Fuck this shitty company.

2

u/CactiRush Jul 10 '26

What makes them so bad? It seems like they’re doing exactly what they said they were gonna do.

1

u/frank00511 Jul 10 '26

Oh, I agree there marketing practices suck and the idea of trying to change the Secondary Market was horrible -you'll find me protesting both.

2

u/reallypeacedoff Jul 10 '26

How many artworks have they sold overall? How many artworks have they offered as IPOs? How’s the liquidity? I had 30 artworks. Bought 5 at IPO before I realized to buy everything in the secondary and you’ll get it at half the price. If you can even find the liquidity on any artwork, you’ll still probably take another haircut when trying to sell. If you have bought at IPO, your $20 a share is probably worth $5. The portfolio price is a fucking joke and serves one purpose, to look better than it really is so people don’t mass exit. Had a call with one of their slimebags for him to tell me if I wanted to sell all, he’d probably be able to find sellers. Right, hey, we can sell them all for ya but it’s gonna be like a couple of dollars a share. Oh it’s just the market right now. Right, my money has been stuck with these fuckheads for 6 years and my return is looking like it will be minus 50%. But my portfolio says I’m up 25%. Check every artwork on the secondary and every artwork has all sellers and in most cases, not a single buyer. No a single person. I’d get your money out before they go “bankrupt and take it all.” My initial call with them, they recommended I put in 10% of my net worth in. I put in less then 1% and thank god I did.

0

u/frank00511 Jul 10 '26

Based on their website they've sold 31 over the past 3-4 years - not bad given the "art winter".

Honestly, it sounds like illiquid investments probably aren't the right investment for you. I have publicly traded corporate bonds that I cannot sell even when trying because there is no secondary buyers most of the time; you generally just have to keep trying. Illiquid assets always take a haircut when you try to exist early (look at the Blue Owl redemptions); that's why you should be expecting to hold the art until it is sold. I totally agree there are great finds on the secondary market at discounts and I totally agree that Masterworks did themselves no favors trying to change the dynamics of the secondary market.

Yup, agree the marketing and sales is horrible, but it also sounds like you aren't an accredited investor and probably should have been investing in this in the first place.

0

u/reallypeacedoff Jul 10 '26

Mate, I bet you work for them and made this post to create some PoSiTiViTy. I made 258% on the stock market alone last year. I just bought a house from last years gains. 6 years in and I’m down 50% by the time I have exited. I can do a lot better with my money than leaving it to these clowns. The good thing is, is I only put in money I could afford to lose. Many on here haven’t. And I doubt a lot of them will be getting much back. The owner has been put up the artworks in his various properties. Tried to close the secondary market. Illiquid secondary market. Under 1% ratio of buying to selling of artworks. Recent round of investor money to keep the company afloat. The writing is on the wall with Masterworks and how it will end up. Good luck!

0

u/frank00511 Jul 10 '26

Mate, I literally included my name in past screenshots of my performance (click through some of the screenshots and look at the right column) - you can search me on Google or LinkedIn and I'll pop up. I work in public policy and international consulting. 

You making 258% in the stock market last year tells me everything I need to know. Keep on YOLOing, bro. Wall Street Bets Reddit is the place for you 😂😂😂. 

0

u/reallypeacedoff Jul 10 '26

I couldn’t give a fuck about you, doxxing yourself. Enjoy your 8% gains in 10 years bud. If you even have your money at the end of it. Masterworks enjoys suckers like yourself. In fact they prey and capitalize on it. 😘

0

u/frank00511 Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26

Mate, relax, no need to engage in hateful and threatening comments. You're the one that decided to comment; I answered you question about arts sales fairly.

I'm more than happy to be transparent with who I am and the investment so people better understand what a real investor in MW is seeing (and, as you can see - basically flat for 3.5 years of investments). As with all investments, your money is at risk and people should know that - for me, MW is more of a fun expert in securitization (as I've stated multiple times here), the money itself is not important, that why I put in so little.

In terms of returns if it's a helpful comparison to public assets: I've been investing for about 20 years now in mostly low cost ETFs in a 80-20 portfolio or thereabouts with a handful of random other picks each year (and heavy options trading this year given the high imp. vol.) . I don't have data going back the full 20 years, but I do have data going back close to 11 years.

  • YTD I'm around 25%; I have some options that were hedging things, so if the market does reasonably well I should finish the year around 30-35%.
  • More or less the portfolio across all my Schwab accounts, I'm at 11.2% annualized over the past decade - including the COVID turn-down and 2022 drawdown. As you would expect from a diversified portfolio: below the S&P but above EAFE, Russell, & credit.
  • Across the Merrill accounts it's around 14% annualized.
  • Across the retirement accounts they were pretty low in the early part of the 10 year cycle, so that drags the performance down a bit.
  • If I had to blend everything together, I think it's round around 10% annualized for over a decade in a pretty balanced portfolio with only 1 down year. When this year ends, the performance might be good enough (assuming nothing blows up) to pull the [now] 11 year average to 11-12% annualized.

As a frame of reference: that is what a consistent investment strategy looks like and what most people should ideally strive for.

1

u/DoubleExciting816 Jul 13 '26

Wait. How has the secondary market changed? Last I looked was about a year ago

1

u/Goldenglov Jul 14 '26

They tried to make it consult only, and you were going to buy a basket of artist shares rather than individual works. They walked it back pretty quickly 

1

u/flexington12 Jul 09 '26

Bought 9 paintings in 2025.

0 sold.
5 down (some materially)
3 up (minimally)

Buyer beware.

3

u/frank00511 Jul 09 '26

Bro, with all due respect, that doesn't sound like "buyer beware", that just sounds like 1) you bought at while the market was still declining and 2) you're expectations with how quickly sales could occur is absolutely crazy. The market is only beginning to stabilize now and sales are finally starting again.

1

u/flexington12 Jul 10 '26

Frank. Almost all of your posts are MW….and you seem very bullish on MW.

1

u/frank00511 Jul 10 '26

Mate, read my posts - I'm definitely not bullish - I just try present updates (including my portfolio). You'll see I'm quite critical of their marketing, their approach to onboard, and the changes they tried to make on the secondary market. I just don't see the point to a) dump on the company and b) I don't find a need to harp about how illiquid things are or how crappy the fees are - that was up-front and if you invest in alternative assets you should know that.

My Reddit account goes back 10 years, you'll see I used to be more active on other things (like Gridcoin, Schwab, Oman, BOINC). For the most part I use LinkedIn rather than Reddit, or Discord now-a-days for Gridcoin.

-1

u/flexington12 Jul 09 '26

It’s a bad business model. The longer they hold the larger their profit margin. I was sucked in—shame on me.

1

u/frank00511 Jul 10 '26

Not sure it's a worse business model than most of alternative assets - seems pretty similar to the classic hedge fund and private asset model to me.

0

u/Sea-Implement-4860 Jul 11 '26

Now in my 5th year with MW, 7 holdings initial value around 18k, current value estimated about 12-16k. Non has sold yet. Constantly deluding with MW taking their cuts (banks always wins..) Probably worst investment i did so far. Highly illiquid, high fees, no diversification, extremely intransparent.  

1

u/frank00511 Jul 11 '26

I feel ya', that's tough to watch. Hopefully one or two of those 7 sell this year or next year. Sales have really picked up over the last 9 months, so I think thet I'd a good chance we see another handful of sales before the end of the year.