art-investing
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Otis made a stock market out of things you love
A Banksy, a pair of Jordans, a comic book: Otis turned objects of desire into investments sold by the share. Public bought the company in 2022, taking its experiment in cultural ownership to a larger audience.
Masterworks
Masterworks is a New York fintech that lets everyday investors buy fractional shares in multimillion-dollar blue-chip paintings by artists such as Basquiat, Picasso, Warhol and Banksy. Founded in 2017 by serial entrepreneur Scott Lynn, the company buys individual artworks, registers each as a public offering with the SEC, and sells shares for as little as $20, then holds the work for several years before selling it and distributing proceeds. It reached unicorn status in 2021 after a $110M Series A and has grown to more than one million members.
Scott Lynn
Scott Lynn is the founder and CEO of Masterworks, the New York fintech that files paintings by Basquiat, Banksy, Picasso and Warhol with the SEC and sells shares of them to retail investors. A serial internet entrepreneur who started his first company at 15 in Kansas City, he was already a top-100 U.S. art collector before he decided the art market itself needed a public offering.