Erling rules

Once a year or so the local papers send out a junior reporter to ask art dealers and the odd collector for tips on how to collect art. As a rule the dealers all give their own artists as the best bet for starting a collecting binge and the collectors mutter on about having to love what you buy and never buy to make money. The other day though we came across some advice from Norwegian art collector Erling Kagge. Strangely enough he is best known (famous really) as an adventurer and explorer. His advice, which he offers in A poor collector’s guide to great art goes like this:

• There are no rules, only deals

• Love the piece not the price

• Collect strange work rather than fashionable work

• Realise that sometimes the best purchases won’t make commercial sense

• Be obsessed
 
.... so there you go.