«GOOD BUSINESS IS THE BEST ART»

April 17 2009 (Bloomberg) -- Castlestone Management Ltd., a New York-based money manager with about $640 million in assets, is starting a fund to buy modern art as it seeks to gain from the recent decline in prices. The Collection of Modern Art fund is open to people with as little as $10,000 to invest and will buy the work of artists such as Banksy, Damien Hirst and Willem de Kooning, Castlestone said today in a statement. It is the only open art fund for individuals and will start investing at the end of May with $25 million under management, the firm said. “With a low threshold this is an unusual investor base,” said Anders Petterson, founder of ArtTactic, a London-based art- market researcher. “Opportunities are presenting themselves, and if you have a fund that can take advantage of them it will be fantastic.”