The art of collecting: How to source the perfect works for your superyacht

From modern paintings to classical sculptures, art collections are becoming an integral part of superyacht interiors. BOAT unpacks how to source and display the perfect works on board. For more expert superyacht tips and essential yachting advice, explore our latest yacht advice guides.

Lesser-spotted Basquiats, £50 million Picassos and a da Vinci or two have all graced the walls of superyachts over the years. But while these famous paintings or sculptures can seem effortlessly placed, acquiring these pieces can be tougher than it looks, as many a buyer has found.

This won’t stop superyacht owners and their art advisers jostling with other collectors at the Art Basel art fair in Switzerland in June. Dealer hotspots include the Gagosian, still the global mega gallerist, Pace gallery’s influential names and estates (think Mark Rothko) and the star-wattage of Nicholas Logsdail’s Lisson Gallery, representing such names as Chinese activist artist Ai Weiwei and performance artist Marina Abramović.

Coming out on top this year, however, are dealers Hauser & Wirth, as one of their artists, American conceptualist Rashid Johnson, is having a mid-career retrospective at the heavy-hitting Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York through to 18 January 2026.

The spotlight is also on German art dealer David Zwirner as figurative painter Noah Davis has his first museum retrospective, travelling worldwide from Potsdam’s Das Minsk to London’s Barbican Art Gallery and, from 8 June to 31 August, to the cutting-edge Hammer Museum in Los Angeles.

These big shows “push [an artist’s] trajectory as an asset to hold”, says Los Angeles-based collector Arushi Kapoor, founder of art advisory The Agency Art House.

And it’s not just the dealers in paintings that are ones to watch this year. There’s also print dealer Lyndsey Ingram, who has recently opened a second gallery in London’s Mayfair gallery as others are closing theirs, and continues to nab the top end of her market. Consider the rare Joan Miró lithographs and etchings at her first booth at TEFAF in Maastricht earlier this year. Bought over a five-year period, she says, these unusual abstract pieces are from his rare early works in the 1940s and 1950s.

So how do you choose the galleries from which to buy art? “Trust is always an issue when you get into art,” says Astor Salcedo, founder of AMS Art Advisory, which specialises in fine art for the yachting sector. “Luckily the art market is not very big, and you do get to know a lot of people fast. If you don’t know the gallery it usually takes two or three phone calls and somebody from my network will have some information,” he says.

Kapoor undertakes research and due diligence “on everything from provenance to who you’re purchasing artwork from”, which is of the utmost importance as the art world is unregulated, she says. Her advice is to spend time with dealers over a year at least and to ask a lot of questions, such as how long the gallery has been in business for, “because a lot of people pop up for a year”, she says. She buys only from galleries that have been running for at least three years, she says.

Salcedo, who has been working with superyacht owners for around five years, believes there are two ways that this group approaches their art collections. There are those who buy for their “own collection that then [they] start managing to get onto the vessel”, he says. “But then you have some yacht owners who maybe are not interested in spending tons of money, but they like art and you still have to look for good-quality pieces that inspire them and that go well with their boat,” he explains, estimating that for this type of owner, he spends about €20,000 to €30,000 (£16,800 to £25,000) per piece.

Picking art for superyacht owners is a process, says Salcedo, who assists them with what they look at, the artist’s background, the way they work and sometimes on price negotiation, because when people realise that a client is a yacht owner, they sometimes “elevate the price unnecessarily”, he says.

Size matters, and it’s not just that an artwork has to fit the width and height of a panel, but it’s the depth as well, especially in a narrow hallway. Sculptures are the toughest works to purchase because obviously superyachts move, and ways to fix the piece on board are a big consideration. Top-heavy works are often drilled into the floor, while smaller structures are glued with museum wax. Salcedo avoids fine sculptures as they can be too fragile.

Similarly, some art forms are sensitive to environmental conditions such as sunlight or humidity, so the work’s display location is a buying consideration too. For example, early black-and-white photographs shot on celluloid should be positioned away from sunlight “because the photograph would be destroyed. It would change colour and you can’t repair it,” says Tilman Kriesel, founder of his Hamburg-based eponymous art advisory. Instead, some yacht owners display a digital copy of the original photograph, he says.

And let’s not forget the legal issues that might affect onboard art as a superyacht sails from one jurisdiction to another. Some works are forbidden from being exported from a country where the artist is considered a national hero – such as Pablo Picasso’s works in Spain, unless the owner can prove the work “is not of interest to [Spanish] culture”, says Kriesel.

Yet whether buying for a home on land or a yacht at sea, quality and value as an investment over the long term remains the same.

First published in the May 2025 issue of BOAT International. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.