NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Launched in December 2010, niche asset-based lending and advisory firm Montage Finance serves high-net worth collectors, established gallery owners, auction houses and other participants in the roughly 4 trillion dollar global art market. James R. Hedges, IV, President of Montage Finance will lead a panel discussion on Everything You Can't Afford to Not Know about Art as an Investment. Distinguished participants include a wealth manager, an art advisor, an auction house expert, an art correspondent, and an artist who will be led by Hedges in discussion on topics such as art as an asset class, the best practices for valuing, protecting and insuring your artwork, and ways to assess a collection as a financial asset.
The panel discussion will convene on Wednesday, March 2, 2011, immediately prior to the VIP opening of the Armory Show, and will feature a premier group of panelists, including:
- James R. Hedges, IV, moderator. President of Montage Finance. Prior to co-founding Montage, Hedges founded and was President and Chief Investment Officer of LJH Global Investments, LLC, an alternative investment advisory firm, from 1993–2010, was the Chairman of LJH Financial Marketing Strategies (2004–2010), and a founder of dozens of alternative investment funds, vehicles and financing solutions. He is the author of the financial industry book Hedges on Hedge Funds published by Wiley Publishing. Hedges began collecting art in 1989, building his first collection in vintage photography. In 2004, he was named by Art and Antiques magazine as one of “The Top 100 Collectors in America.” Mr. Hedges is an active supporter of the visual and performing arts around the world. He has supported and sponsored several exhibitions including Sol LeWitt and Roni Horn, each at The Whitney Museum of American Art, and, Richard Long and Sol LeWitt, each at The Aspen Institute. He is a Director of The National Public Radio Foundation (NPR). He is also President of The Hedges Family Charitable Foundation, which he founded, and has made grants to artist-in-residency programs, cultural institutions and arts initiatives for nearly fifteen years.
- Thomas Gilbraith, Partner at The Petraeus Group LLC, the financial firm advising clients on methods of asset growth, protection and transfer by using investments, risk management, tax and financial. He previously worked as an Art Historian at the Art Loss Register assisting in the recovery of stolen art and a Collections Specialist at Chartis Private Client Group. Gilbraith served as Fine Art Expert for AXA Art Insurance in the US as well as part of a two-person team that spearheaded the company’s Canadian operations. He currently serves as Treasurer of the Board of the Association of Professional Art Advisors (APAA).
- Heidi Lee, Founder and Principal of Heidi Lee Art Advisory, has extensive experience with art acquisitions, estate liquidations, collection management and appraisals. Specializing in Modern and Contemporary art, Lee has managed and appraised collections for private wealth clients of JP Morgan Chase, Sotheby's, and Christie's as well as for Fortune 500 companies including Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Capital Group, Davis Polk and Exxon. She is co-chair of the New Museum’s Contemporary Council and chairman of Christie’s Education Alumni Society. She is also a USPAP certified art appraiser, on the board of Art Connects New York, APAA, Solomon R. Guggenheim’s Acquisitions and contemporary art committees and Whitney Museum of American Art’s Patron Circle.
- Alexander Gilkes, co-founder of to-be-launched online art market Paddle8.com, brings a wealth of art market knowledge and brand-building expertise. First recruited by Mark Cornell, CEO of Krug Champagne, later bought by LVMH, Gilkes became a recognized tastemaker and significant business developer. His numerous accomplishments were rewarded by placement on the Krug executive committee, making him one of the youngest members of such a committee in the LVMH group. Following his ambition to explore the art world, he moved to New York where he joined Phillips de Pury as Marketing Director. There he modernized the 18th century auction house and was taken on as an auctioneering protégé. His latest undertaking, Paddle8.com, is a curated online market place where he has developed an online community that provides curated online exhibitions free of time and geographical constraints. Paddle8.com will launch Spring 2011.
- Manish Vora, co-founder of Artlog.com, a global contemporary art guide. He is a regular correspondent for Artlog on NBC New York. He is involved with numerous non-profits including UNICEF, Creative Time, iCl, Exit Art and The Rema Hort Mann Foundation. Previously he was Director of Research at Monness, Crespi & Hardt and an investment banker at Citigroup. He graduated from Yale University.
- Hank Williams Thomas, photo conceptual artist working primarily with themes related to identity, history and popular culture. He received his BFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and his MFA in photography, along with an MA in visual criticism, from California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco. Thomas’ work is in numerous public collections including The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, The High Museum of Art in Atlanta and the Museum of Fine Art in Houston. Recent exhibitions include Dress Codes, The International Center for Photography’s Triennial of Photography and Video, Greater New York at P.S. 1/MoMa, Contact Toronto Photography Festival and Houston Fotofest. Thomas is currently a fellow at the W.E.B. DuBois Institute at Harvard University and is represented by Jack Shainman Gallery in New York City.
The panel is part of The Armory Show VIP Program and is open to members of The Armory Show Circle. Montage Finance will welcome a group of roughly 200 collectors, art advisors and gallery owners to this event. For more information on Everything You Can't Afford to Not Know about Art as an Investment, email montage@fitzandco.com.
Montage Finance
Montage Finance is a specialized financial advisor to the art world. Launched in December 2010 by President James R. Hedges IV and Chairman Tyler T. Tysdal, Montage offers debt solutions, equity financing and collection advisory services. Together with the principals and investors of Dallas-based private equity powerhouse Satori Capital, Mr. Hedges and Mr. Tysdal sought to create a lender in the industry, which not only understands the fine art community but the community of institutional finance. Montage has identified the need in the marketplace for increased access to liquidity for art collectors and dealers who wish to access the equity value in their art assets. Through its affiliates, Montage Finance provides asset-based loans secured by fine art, collectibles and antiques. While Montage underwrites and funds term loans typically ranging from $500,000 to $25 million, they also offer short-term bridge financing solutions to facilitate the purchase and/or sale of art in scenarios of illiquidity, rolling lines of credit and alternative debt solutions.
For more information on Montage Finance, please visit the new and expanded Montage Finance website, www.montagefinance.com.