Secrets of the Ultra-Rich: Building Massive Wealth Using Art

Look, building wealth can require you to take on new and creative ways to develop and preserve your net worth.  But did you know one of the secrets of the rich in building and preserving wealth is found in Art?  This alternative asset class is a subtle yet powerful way to grow your net worth.  In this week's episode of Making Billions, I bring on my dear friend. Maria Brito.  Maria is a straight-shooting, NYC art curator that works with ultra-high-net-worth collectors and celebrities like Puff Daddy, and Gwyneth Paltrow.  Working with professionals, and being creative in your wealth-building efforts are all skills we need in our pursuit of  Making Billions.

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[THE GUEST]: Maria Brito has 13 years of experience as an art advisor after leaving her career as a corporate attorney in a big law firm in New York City. She has acquired more than $100M in art for her clients, which include celebrities such as Sean “Diddy” Combs, Gwyneth Paltrow, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, hedge fund portfolio managers, investment bankers, private equity firm partners and more. Art has been known to perform differently than traditional investments such as stocks and bonds. Some studies have shown that over the long-term, art has outperformed the S&P 500 with an average annual return of 7% over the past 10 years, outperforming the S&P 500's average annual return of about 4%. 

[THE HOST]: Ryan is a Venture C

Transcript

Ryan Miller  0:00  
My name is Ryan Miller and for the past 15 years have helped hundreds of people to raise millions of dollars for their funds and for their startups. If you're serious about raising money, launching your business or taking your life to the next level, and the show will give you the answers, so that you too can enjoy your pursuit of making billions. Let's get into it. 

Look, building wealth can require you to take on new and creative ways to build and preserve your net worth. But did you know one of the secrets of the rich on building preserving wealth is found in art. See, this alternative asset class is a subtle yet powerful way to grow your network. So in this week's episode of making millions I bring on my dear friend Maria Brito Maria is a straight shooter in New York City art curator that works with ultra high net worth collectors as well as celebrities like Puff Daddy want to tell Joe and more. Join Maria and me as we discussed this asset class and how to get started building wealth within this sector. Working with professionals, and being creative in your wealth building efforts are all skills we can use in our pursuit of making billions. Here we go. 

Hey, welcome to another episode of making billions I'm your host Ryan Miller and today I have my dear friend Maria Brito. Maria is an award winning New York based contemporary art advisor, entrepreneur, author and creator. She has helped the ultra rich and celebrities including Sean Puffy Combs and Gwyneth Paltrow to build multimillion dollar collections in this space. So what this means is that Maria is highly skilled not only in what art will delight investors eyes, but will also delight their net worth making her a highly sought after elite player in the art curation investment space. So Maria, welcome to the show.

Maria Brito  1:31  
Hi, Ryan. I'm so excited. I love you. And I love the show.

Ryan Miller  1:35  
We certainly love you too.

Maria Brito  1:37  
And I love everybody who's listening. You know, hi vibes. I feel great. Thank you for having me. I'm super honored and excited to talk to you about art collecting art investing and everything that relates to the things that make my heart sing.

Ryan Miller  1:52  
Yes, well, it's so good to have you. And if you can tell, you can see why just from that high energy, that excitement that she brings to the room, everybody's excited to work with her, myself included, we're certainly honored to have you on the show, we've gotten to know each other a little bit offline. And I am so impressed with what you've been able to do that little introduction, I just gave us nothing compared to everything that you've accomplished. And you're just getting started, I have a feeling that you're about to 10x everything that you've even done. But before we get into that, and you're gonna want to hang in there at the end, where she reveals a lot of her secret pointers on making and preserving wealth in the art space and just finding what you enjoy. But before we get into that, maybe you can walk us through like how did you even get into this this industry?

Maria Brito  2:26  
Well, I was born and raised in Venezuela, and I moved to the States to go to Harvard Law School, because my parents were very conservative and adamant. So for them, art was something that you use, either as a hobby, something to nurture your culture and your education and to have great points of conversation with people or ask the collector, but never as a career. So all the things that I really wanted to do with art as a child, because my parents really instilled in me all this love for our history, we traveled a lot. We traveled the world going to museums, we traveled, you know, always getting this incredible sense of the culture of the places. And they were very open minded in learning about different cultures and different countries. And obviously, art is a very important path to learn that for them again, it was like this is a hobby, like, you know, people go for dependable careers. So I did that. And when I moved to New York to start working as an attorney, I started also going to galleries and buying art for me as an emerging young attorney and emerging artists. And little by little I started getting the bug myself. And so France would come to me and say, What have you seen in the galleries in Chelsea or in Soho? And is there anything worth buying right now? So I would recommend things to them. And it was a very different world back then Brian because there was no Instagram No, basically very little to find things on the internet. The websites for this galleries was very rustic. You would have to go physically or you would have to go and subscribe to this obscure magazines where nobody understood, you know anything because like, people had that kind of the art world and the art market has been covered by these veil. This opaqueness for so long. But the truth is that that's not how it is. In other words, once you're in everybody's fun and friendly. Bottom line is when I am in my ninth year of practicing law, eighth year, I don't know I'm like, where am I going with this? I hate this. I was doing leveraged buyouts and working representing the banks and I was pregnant with my first child. So I did an assessment for myself. I like I already I mean, look, being an attorney went to Harvard and practicing in New York is a dream for many people. And the truth is, I'm super grateful for that time. There are very little trainings in life that teach you how to think the way a lawyer thinks someone who has to review contracts, pay attention to little details and being also almost like Ankole as if you're a doctor because you have to sleep with like, at that time, it was a Blackberry, we didn't have iPhones. So just leave with that BlackBerry under your pillow because you knew at any minute you were gonna get an email from the CEO of a bank or the managing director of you know, any investment bank saying we need this now right and And so I feel very privileged to have that background. And it's incredibly helpful, really, in what I do, but it wasn't for me. And, you know, I made up my mind. I mean, when I was like, you know, allowed to have my baby, it was like, I just really can't do this for myself, because this is not for me. And, and again, like lawyers are wonderful people. But, you know, that was not my environment. So I went back to the law firm. And this was the collapse of the 2008. Very similar tune right now. And it was like, oh, Lehman Brothers, and oh, Bear Stearns. And you know, Merrill Lynch had to be sold, and like, Bernie Madoff, everything was like this domino effect. But that was really not the reason why I quit. The reason why I left is because that was not for me. You know, I think that getting honest with my desires, and my gifts, and my passions, is what has propelled me where I am today. And I just knew that it didn't really matter, I could go to another law firm, I had already worked in different law firms, I could go and work in house as an attorney in a company, and that was just going to be more miserable after more miserable. So that's how I started. So that was here. 2008, we are here. 2023 with very similar conditions, perhaps right now it's better? I think it is. It's been an incredible journey. I've worked with incredible people. I've built amazing art collections. I've done you know, great, fun, interesting, profound work to with incredible artists and galleries. And I have to read it shows around the world. So that's in a nutshell, I hope I didn't take too much time,

Ryan Miller  6:27  
No, you do good. You have such a wonderful background. And by the way, I was in New York during that time, too. So I think you and I spoke about that, that that was that was an interesting activity on Wall Street. And one of the cool things that you've done is you were able to, as you mentioned earlier, that the art market was very local, right? And so people would rely on you to travel all these things and say, Oh, yeah. And so how are these different areas where you're seeing different galleries? And you're able to take that and decentralize it to say, how about I just bring what I see onto social media? And then that led to you working with some pretty impressive people that we talked about before? Is there anything that you're allowed to share about working with the high end clients? And what was that like working with celebrities?

Maria Brito  7:03  
I had acquired knowledge while buying my very small art collection. But I wasn't an expert. So I had to go and ask questions to a lot of people's everybody would open their doors and say, Yes, I want to talk to you about my gallery, or I want to talk to you about my program, I would figure out how to meet artists in their studios, I would send emails scheduled to say, Hey, listen, I have a blog and people, the artists that Oh, she's so cool, let her come in, you know. And so I would share these things on Facebook and Twitter, it's sort of got momentum, and people started responding really well. And so I have a friend who lives in Los Angeles, and her husband has worked for many years on the background of the entertainment industry, the music industry. So she sends me a message and she says, Oh, I've been looking at your posts. And I'm fascinated by this new career you feel for yourself, and so dynamic. And I finally understand about art because of you. And thank you so much. And by the way, there is a friend of ours specially off my husband, who's looking for a person like you. It's Sean Diddy Combs, would you be open to an introduction? And I was like, Oh, shit, yes, I am open to that introduction. So I go, and I meet with a man who was super cool, super kind, humanized, sat down and talk for a long, long time. And one of his concerns was that he wanted an impartial arbiter, because he said, Look, I know a lot of these people already I know artists, I know gallery owners, everybody knows me. And that's the truth. I mean, has been around since he's been famous since he was 20. You know, and so everybody sort of knows him. And he says, but I do want someone who's impartial and someone who can actually advocate for what I want, while at the same time not telling me things that I don't want your know, I want you to tell me what's worth what I want you to tell me what's worth investing in, I want you to tell me if this should be something that I should have in my collection. And so I definitely appreciate it. That moment of humbleness of someone who was already brutally famous, and rich. And in telling me, I don't know what I'm doing. And I really need help, because I want to have a really nice art collection. And what I have so far, it's not that great. It's a it's a long collaboration that has lasted 12 years, and we went to Art Basel together many, many times, maybe six or seven, in Miami, I've been to his homes. And, you know, we have worked on different strategies for different things in his collection. It's, it's, it was an incredible opportunity for me, and I feel very fortunate, but not every of my clients is a collector of that caliber with that amount of money. I mean, I have other collectors who have less money have bigger collections. And I have other collectors who, you know, they spend $100,000 A year and they have great collections, too. I mean, it doesn't really matter it like, you know, we talked about this, it's not necessarily what you read on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, what the art market is those. Those are the things that get reported to the news because the numbers are so exorbitant people have to talk about that, but it's not what it is in general. I mean, working with puff I remember that he bought once a South African artist and he baked in that $1 for something he fell in love with. And I told him, Yes, this is amazing. We bought it at Art Basel, he was a South African artist as South African gallery. And it was quality and he paid in 1000 bucks. And that was, you know, at some point hanging next to something else, and his brother was 25 million. So what I'm trying to say is that, I don't want anybody to think that they are being priced out, because they don't have this sort of like bucket of infinite cash to buy art, that is not the truth. And nobody should be priced out of collecting anyway, I took a lot of tangents here.

Ryan Miller  10:33  
No, you're good. I love the point. So you, you've dispelled that myth for me, as well as saying, like, you actually don't have to be ultra mega rich, then that's, people get that I didn't even realize that. But that was my impression is saying no, this is a great way to grow and maintain wealth. But that's one view of it. The other one is finding things that you love that sparks some type of emotion, passion, whatever it is, and you see it every day when you walk through your hallway or some centerpiece in your home. And so there's this other thing, just pure joy. And so working with you, or, you know, keep in mind like these are in the context of investors and high net worth people that are working with you that are on the path of making billions or maybe they're already they're working with you. What, how does that work? Talk about a little bit of how does it work working with an art curator, and maybe just walk us through some of the fun stuff you're up to today?

Maria Brito  11:17  
Look, everybody is different. And my objective is to serve my clients first and foremost. So I have the greatest satisfaction when the clients are the happiest, right? And so there are different types of clients, there is the Virgin, the one who has never done anything, right. They don't know anything about the art market. And so it's a lot of my time in education and explaining things. And obviously, this is a it's a dialogue, there's a lot of questions you're gonna ask, it's a lot of things that are in your head, what's what and why, right? What are the art fairs that are worth going? What are the art fairs that are top medium? Young? What are the museums that I acquire young artists? What does he really mean? When a museum acquire something? You know, what are the tax write offs? If I want to donate something to a museum, let's say right, I mean, those that exist, does it help me I have had collectors who have very, very, they have very big elections, for example, and they have been able to close big financing deals, using the art as a collateral, for example, that is a very unusual thing. But what I'm telling you is that this has a lot of creative angles that people use, I have this very vast amount of clients with very different conditions, people sometimes come and say, Look, I want to start and I have this budget, and what can we do with it? And how long it will take, you know, for me to find the right things. And it also depends like, what are you willing to give in terms of time and attention, right, because while it is not, I don't want to say it is a serious pursuit, if you want to do things, for either the joy of collecting art, or for the expansion of learning something new, you're going to have to dedicate some time, right. And that is something that you have to sort of like agree with yourself from the get go. So I'm clients of mine, don't ever have to meet me and come with me to things because I told you 90% of all this transactions happen online, if you do not have the desire to come everywhere with me. Or if you do not live in New York, or if you are in Texas, and you know, that are only five galleries in Dallas, you will have this channel through me. And you will get to see things from the comfort of your house or office on your phone or your computer. So there is not one way to do this thing. And but it does, for the most successful collectors, it takes a little bit of their time to understand what's happening, right and why but are yet adapt and adjust to whatever they want me to do. I mean, it's the you want me to go and see your house and measure every wall. Those are things that are fine. You know, I mean, I have a team who does that, but I can do that, too. It doesn't really matter. It's it's about like, what are the objectives and you know, I come up with a game plan that serves the objective, and, you know, successfully accomplishes it.

Ryan Miller  14:08  
I love that and, you know, working with someone in your position, I imagine it. So I'm just looking through the lens of my own eyes where, you know, you make a few bucks. And then you want to say, Alright, I want to I want to put this in place as well. I mean, are you gonna buy a bunch of old bricks, put them in your house are you gonna leave cash in your bank account, the other alternative is a store of value, it would be art like and then you have that just like this other guy, which is phenomenal idea, he would think of that where you can use art, if you have art worth collateralizing, it does have some value, you can actually use that in future as down payments for some of your financing things. But one of the things that I find most interesting is that working with an art curator like yourself or anyone in the industry, but if you don't work the best I would say go work with you. But regardless of who that is one of the cool things about your industry, for investors who around the world, is that it gives you access and you brought this up a little bit offline and maybe we can get your comments on this is that you know you can go out and you can just look around and see how you feel right but you have no idea what's going on. But But the cool thing that, you know, the insider track is that working with an art curator to help grow your or preserve your wealth, they're able to understand that context. But the thing is, is you're working with somebody who has the inside track on will say the chatter, that some of the, you know, around the business around the artists, like you guys are so involved in that, that you have that inside track on the value of these assets in both. I don't care if you're buying a business, you're investing in stocks, understanding what's going on behind the scenes, legally, of course, no insider trading here.

Maria Brito  15:28  
Well, it's a different industry. See, that's I love what you're saying, because in any other, you know, securities industry, or whatever, this will be a crime, but it's not. And I have been in this business 14 years. So I know a ton of people, there are so many things happening all the time. And that's the truth, right? I mean, it's a vast market, not one single person can know everything is just way too much. You know, I've tried to weed all this sort of like the things that are not worth talking about the things that I already know, go nowhere. I am very particular about the location of the artists to because I know that this roundings can make or break a career. And I'm trying to see the context, the information that surrounds also that particular artists to see if there is a viable growth or not. And most of the time I'm right. I mean, the new frontier is that a lot of dealers and a lot of galleries are going to Africa, like Ghana, and Nigeria to fine art is not African American anymore. It's African African. So they are going there. Because it's the new unexplored territory. And it's hot. I mean, there are articles written about this everywhere that are, you know, it's a very long trip that people are willing to do because the artists are wonderful. Many of them have had like education in London, and they've returned to so these are great things. And it's always wonderful. Like I tell some of my clients, this artist lives in Ghana, and is frontier market, I tell them, but for people who work on Wall Street, they understand this perfectly, you know, it's not even in emerging markets, it's frontier. Are you willing? Yes, I am. Let's, let's do it. And you know, they fall in love with the art, they fall in love with the idea that they have some something in their collection, from an artist who lives in Africa. And you know, wow, amazing, that person could potentially become a big sensation. But it's gonna be a whole lot harder than someone who lives in Brooklyn.

Ryan Miller  17:12  
Yeah, that's, that's well said. So having that inside track on the Shatter, knowing where they're from all of these things that, you know, for someone who doesn't, maybe you made a few bucks, and you're trying to invest in art, and you just don't find something you like, which is, it's okay. But it's a little bit risky, which I what I think I'm hearing from you is, is you're saying, Well, look, we know where they're from, we know what markets are on the rise, we know what artists are on the rise, we understand what makes someone a genius or not, it's so much more than just colors that you like on the wall in an art gallery. So working with an art curator. Now really quick auction houses are an investor trying to make money, preserve money, acquire and build up these assets in their lives, auction houses, are they good? Are they not good for people, investors,

Maria Brito  17:50  
auction houses are good and bad. And I think that this has to be taken seriously. And as I'm telling you, auction houses have a very specific mandate, which is to make money. Auction Houses do not have any interest in the career of an artist, auction houses do not care about their clients that much either because they charge to buyers and sellers. So that yes, they do care, but they don't have any loyalty to anybody. In other words, you know, I mean, it's like, it's the money. And that's fine. Every business is about money. And I don't have anything against that. But what I'm trying to say with this is that it's like having a real estate broker that represents buyer and seller. Okay, so who are you representing here? Right? I mean, like, what is really the kind of background that you know, it's going to make me feel that you're negotiating or that you are keeping my interests, you know, protected. So that's the first thing remember that auction houses will always charge this 25% auction houses also take the majority of the assets as a caveat emptor meaning, look, if it's fake, we try our best to do a due diligence at the very beginning, but we're not going to go all the way back and check everything and see everything and like it. You know, I mean, fakes are a problem. It's not necessarily the biggest problem with newer works is more things that are you know, 100 200 and so no one who's listening to this, who's going to buy art for the first time, he's going to try to buy a Da Vinci painting for $500 million. I don't think that's the case. But I'm just saying that, you know, in free in those cases, for example, to prove the authenticity of Salvatore moon day that was bought by the Abu Dhabi family for $500 million a few years ago. The authenticity is still questioned. And we don't know because DaVinci has been dead for 400 years. So we can't really tell no matter how many X rays or whatever that's for another day that's like it sounds like a fun crime, you know, detective story but yeah, auction houses for investors. I don't want to say don't I want to say be very careful, do not fall into the traps of luck when there is a deal that is too too good to be true? It probably is not that good. You know, I've had clients who are knowledgeable, actually. And they felt that there were times, let's say, May 2020, right? They say, Oh, and people aren't going to be bidding and whatnot. And like there are this assets that they got under the value. And it's been really hard to sell them again, they've like reached out to me and say, Hey, I got all this during the pandemic, I spend, let's say, $200,000. And I want to sell them at a profit. And I said, That's awesome. But the thing is that the things you bought, were not that great. So that's the other thing you can buy names that are important. Not everything that an important name has produced is good. You know, that's the other thing what you hire an advisor, because not every Picasso is the same. Not every Basquiat is the same, a drawing has a different value than a painting sculptures have two completely different value system. So I mean, look, anybody can learn the same thing, as if tomorrow I decide to become an investor in the stock market. If I dedicate myself to spend, let's say, the hours that the market is open from nine to four, or whatever it is, right? And then four or five hours at night, every leg learning extra or whatever, I think that maybe in two or three years, I'll be excellent, you know, maybe less, I don't know, I'm very smart. I want to I want to think that right? But I don't have that time. I don't have the time to be watching CNBC and Bloomberg every minute and be on the computer looking at the phone. And you know, beyond the investor and calls and things like I don't really have the time to do that. And because of that, that's not my forte, but my husband does that. That's what he does. And that's why, you know, when he would want to give me opinions about what I do, he maybe has a saying what I buy for my own collection, because he might say, I don't like that or you know, whatever. But in the intricacies of the market. Someone who is as skilled and intuitive as my husband, who was, you know, he was a stock trader for 20 years, I mean, then he was a CEO of a FinTech, I don't think he actually can understand the market the same way I do. So this is just to say that this is a full time, job and business that requires a lot of research, intelligence, intelligence, meaning what you're learning and processing, and he's dynamic is fast, it changes and it's full of opportunities. Particularly, you know, if someone just wants to go with an open heart, let's say, you know, like, say, oh, okay, I do have this, and we talked about this offline $100,000 To spend over the course of a year, let's say, you know, or forever, I don't know, I just want to have 10 nice paintings, 10,000 bucks each or whatever, would you be able to guide me? Yes. You know, that is fun, that we can do that. It's possible, right? I mean, and so, as I as I said before, this is a market that has many different ways to get in. And is not just for, you know, the billionaires. It's not just for Misia, Hana and LVMH. It No, he is a big part of it, but it's not his market.

Ryan Miller  23:00  
Nice. Okay, so that is an exciting world. And so dedicating your time, just like you said, Hey, and finance, which most people listen to the show, in finance, yeah, if you really think about it, it's taking you decades to get good at making money in the market, whether it's hedge funds, or private equity, whatever it might be. But now, that same principle applies to your so as we wrap third base, I'm just wondering if you had a few pointers wood that you can leave behind for some of our listeners who want to invest, borrow money, why don't we start with what's what's one myth about making money in the art market that you want to dispel for our listeners around the world?

Maria Brito  23:33  
Well, I think that we touched on that, and it's like, okay, I need to have billions, or I need to buy the $1 million painting. That is not the case. As I said before, there are plenty of young fine artists, it's almost like, like, if you're, you know, like you're a fund, for example, like being a venture capitalist, right? Let's say you bought money on 10 companies that are starting and they are different things. And it's like, one is technology. And the other one is, I don't know, fashion. And the other one is sustainability and whatnot, right? And you put a little bit here and there and you know, you're like, Okay, guys, I love you. Oh, you know, but, but and so it's kind of the same in the art world, you may have, let's say, you know, there's $100,000, and you want to split them equally, that are fun and interesting things that can be bought for that price. I think obviously at 20 It's becomes even better quality, you know, when it starts to become like 50 100 per piece, then it's gotta be a little bit more serious because we're talking about more money and then you just don't want to throw your money out, you know, that are great. We also mentioned this, the hottest markets is is young female artists and black artists, because for the longest time in our history, those were categories that were not necessarily pushed or a lot of women were not really finding their footage in the art world like their foot and like they were not getting their recognition but that changed tremendously. So a lot of young artists, which is a segment we call the ultra contemporary because this women are you know 28 to 35 are already happy seeing results out option of million, like a million or a million 2,000,005, you know, and these are things that were bought by whomever is selling them for maybe 100,000. Or they were maybe, you know, 50, and things like that I have a client who bought a painting in 2016 through me, and he paid 30. And he just moved to a townhouse. So we had to go and reassess everything with insurance, and he got rip race, I want a million. And so I mean, that's the type of thing that happens in the art market that there is we always say that he beats the s&p 500 by, but like, you know, at least four times, but it's, I don't want to say it as a general blanket statement, because it's not true for every art that you buy, right. And so you have to, in a way, be extremely strategic, and the competition is brutal to like all the best things, you're always going to have to like, fight a little bit. And that's also why working with an advisor is good, because we are advocates, we are the ones who are calling and, you know, asking and please read this, and this is a great collector, we have to vouch for the collector. So, you know, it's there are a lot of interesting things that we would we can spend a lot of time talking about, but I hope that I'm giving people a glimpse of how things are in the art market and how hot it is. I mean, I think very recently, the Wall Street Journal said is is the hottest market on Earth. And obviously, when we see recessionary times, I think people who do have the money to spend, they go for assets like art, because you know, when you buy a one of a kind of painting, that is excellent, nobody else has it. And then therefore, it's a valuable thing. And you can hold it on, you know, you can hold on to it for a little bit and wait and see what happens. And I mean, traditionally, art has really done well during inflation and recession. And it's not necessarily the exception right now. It's just that the last three years were absolutely massive, the the year of the pandemic was massive 2021 2022 were insanely big. So people really bought and bought and bought and bought. And I think what you're seeing right now is that people are becoming much more selective. So instead of just like buying 10 paintings a month, they may or maybe they're buying one that's kind of like what I am seeing my colleagues are seeing too.

Ryan Miller  27:06  
I mean, so there's a bit of a shift in the market. And you're seeing that in a lot of asset categories. And yours is certainly one of them. You know, so it sounds like from what you said, just to synthesize the myth is you don't have to be a billionaire, you can get started, I think you said $10,000 Like you can get you can get a nice valuable painting for $10,000. Now, that being said, I got to ask, Who are some of those artists, for people starting out and it's not just art lovers, I mean, to some degree, but also people who are love art, but also want to invest? They see it as an asset class, it's very important to them as in their overall building of wealth and making billions maybe if you could share, say three artists or so that that are really solid investments.

Maria Brito  27:41  
I'm not going to talk about young artists and like that category of like the 10 1000s and whatnot, because all of those things are unproven is just all staking bets, right? But let's let's say for example, George Kondo is an artist whose paintings and it has, that's the other thing it has to be from the Cubist serious because he made a lot of different theories of the Cubist serious usually has annualized rate of rate of return, maybe of like 50%. I mean, he's like really crazy. I have friends who spend days doing this algorithm things and calculations that I would not even know how to do. But they get the data and they actually crunch those numbers. So George Kondo, who is in his 60s, and lives in New York, is a wonderful draftsman and he's a great painter, and he is represented by one of the best galleries in the world, and has had many museum shows. And it's a guy who, you know, has that background that growth of the pop era and the minimalist era and so he comes with his own language. People love him, he does really well. Then there is Alex Katz. We talked about Alex Alex is 95 years old, also a New Yorker. And he paints figures and landscapes if you're ever going to buy anything from CATS, make sure it is a failure. He paints women don't buy man based men to them by the men, by the women by the banding ski just had a very well received retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum here in New York. Before that he had like three months prior, he had had another one at the Thiessen Museum in Madrid, he is beloved and like, honestly, at 95. I mean, I don't want to predict his demise. But like, you know, how much longer can he go? Right? I mean, he could, especially if you can ever get one of the like this 1970s or 1980s paintings, those are the ones that are the most valuable because it was the beginning, not the beginning, but a moment in his career where he was really refining his skills. And a dead artist that everybody knows and loves is Andy Warhol. The most valuable asset for the most part in any art market conversation is a painting is a one of a kind painting, right? We're all did hundreds of paintings and 1000s and 1000s of prints. So print is something that, you know, a lithograph, you know, a screen print is something that I would recommend to someone who's really young and says, Oh, I have no money. I have 2000 bucks. What do I do? Go buy a print for fun, you know? But the world brands are souI generous and they are solid and particularly to Marilyn prince, he did all this Marilyn Prince and different combinations have shown an insane growth consistently. And there are 1000s of those Marilyn Prince out in the market. Because he made I don't know, I always forget, forget the number but let's say is like 2600, I don't know, ze range from, you can still maybe get one out option for maybe 100,000 or 120,000. And they go all the way to 600,000 and whomever and whomever has kept because the way we're all intended this was a portfolio of I don't know if it was 10 or 12 of all the Maryland's in different combinations, right? Whomever has that portfolio intact, has been able to see even $2 million for those things, you know, so I mean, that's the type of brand that I would say if you can get a Warhol, Marilyn, or even maybe not in Maryland, but maybe you like Liz you know, like he doe Liz Taylor, or like maybe Campbell's soup or whatever. It's a super, insanely solid market. So but go for the Maryland's because I'm telling you I myself some of my clients asked me for Maryland's and either the ones I find are way too expensive and above what they want to like spend, or like we get out bid all the time, I see some really hot market, and he will continue to be because that's it, there are no more brands and we're has been dead for many years. And he's the kind of artists that is relevant forever. I mean, at least in our lifetimes, it's very hard to take away from all the things that he did.

Ryan Miller  31:29  
And that is brilliant. I absolutely love that. So maybe last pointer. So we've talked about, we've talked about many things you can get started with less money than you think you don't have to be a billionaire to build wealth in the sector. There's some great artists in this sector if you're just starting out. Now for those people who again are continuous you as you talked about your husband who put in all the time as much as you did to understand both of your crafts, are somebody who really wants to understand this. Well, the easiest way would be work with you or you know someone in your field. But for those that just want to understand it. If they're like me, they're just saying I'll probably work with you. But I at least want to understand what I'm talking about before I work with you. What advice could you give to people just to build skills and spotting great pieces.

Maria Brito  32:06  
I think you should subscribe to ArtNet news, which is wonderful is a twice a day newsletter that gives you what's happening, you know, the overall pulse of the market ideas, the artists collectors, it's a it's a mix of everything. And so it's it gives you a nice angle of what's happening everywhere, like the auction houses and museums, they collectors, the galleries and whatnot. So that's great. I also think that because all the data from the auctions is available on their websites of Christie's and Sotheby's at least, I mean, there are many more auction auction houses in the United States, you know, many, many more and in the world, but if you just want to have an idea of prices, what things sold for estimates, etc, you can go to Christie's calm and Sotheby's dot com and Phillips, which is the other one, bonobos is another one that is also big and respected, and see and get a feel for the prices right. And, and there are categories there is like this, this auction houses have sales, as I said before, their number one mandate is to make money, but they have they have auctions in person in May, and November. And the rest of the year, it's all online, it's anybody can register and bid if they want to you I mean, remember all the caveats I already gave you. But you can also have the information for free, you do still have to register to see all the numbers. For the most part, I don't know if I know that probably Philips is still not, you don't need to register. But on the other ones you will, worst thing that can happen is that you get an email from them. And let's say then you can unsubscribe. But I think that knowledge is power. And if you are curious, that is kind of the only place where you do have all this information will you know without having to pay for like a database that you know, paying 500 bucks a month or you don't need to do that, you know, it's like, you can go and have a feel. And I mean, that's all the things that I can think people can do from their couches, right? I mean, if you want to go and do the real let work, go and visit galleries and ask questions and ask for prices or go to art fairs. art fairs are places where you can find I find that for the uninitiated and Art Fair could be very overwhelming because they are usually really big, with a ton of things to see. So they can be overwhelming and they can be exhausting. But if you're you know, oh my god, I'm gonna go to Miami in December and you want to go to Art Basel the week that he opens and you know, I mean, whatever. Then you go and you ask questions, and you ask for prices and you shake hands. I mean, like I said before, there there are no real rules on how to approach this business, but to be able to cover it, and to strategize about it. It's a full time job. I have friends who are collectors who have retired and they have full time job is to do what I do, but they do it for themselves. And they spend their year struggling to art fairs all over the world, and visiting, you know, museums and culture and it's their passion. And you know, they decide what to do and what to buy based on their firsthand observations of the market because they don't do anything else.

Ryan Miller  34:59  
Awesome. Oh, yeah. binominal so as we wrap things up final comments, is there anything else you'd like our fans to know? Like, how to connect with you? Maybe your Instagram handle how to follow you? I follow you. So I've seen all the cool stuff that you post on there. It's absolutely beautiful. But how can people connect with you? After the show?

Maria Brito  35:17  
Yes. Well, my website is Maria Brito B R I T as in Tom O dot com. And that has all the lift different little, you know, I can see connections to my social media, and my Instagram is Maria Brito. Underscore and why for New York. And also, my website has a forum. So if anybody wants to email me and get in touch with me that forum is there is the easiest thing to do. I would be thrilled to hear from you guys. I'm happy to also, you know, like I always give people Oh, you want to go and zoom and we can have a one hour talk about what you want to do. You know, we can do that. I'm very flexible and very excited to connect with new people.

Ryan Miller  35:55  
Yeah, I love it. And it's certainly been an honor to connect with you. I feel like you and I aren't done here. So I might given you a call when I'm when I'm ready here very soon. So just to synthesize everything that we talked about, work with art curators to get the inside track on the variables that affect the value of your investment if you see it as an investment, but also one that you fall in love with that you can see it every day. It's not this stock that's held by your broker. It's something that's hanging in your office or somewhere that you fall in love in your kitchen that draws inspiration allows you to connect with the artists and connect to something greater than yourself. Work with an art dealer that understands how to get you that how to understand the variables to synthesize don't start with a billion dollars you can actually get started today you can work with 10 grand 10 grand could get you started in building your collection and building your wealth in this area. And finally, follow me on Instagram. It's wonderful, I do it I highly recommend it. She has wonderful post showing art galleries and different ideas and everything even from your culture, your sharing stuff. I was learning all kinds of things from you on off of that, you know, following people following the experts on Instagram getting started with where you're at now and building from there. And working with professionals who can give you the inside track are all critical skills we need in our pursuit of making billions

Wow, what a show. I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. Now if you haven't done so already, be sure to leave a comment and review on new ideas and guests you want me to bring on for future episodes. Plus, why don't you head over to YouTube and see extra takes while you get to know our guests even better. And make sure to come back for our next episode where we dive even deeper into the people the process and the perspectives of both investors and founders. Until then, my friends stay hungry. Focus on your goals and keep grinding towards your dream of making billions