Investing in art like investing in tech.
Daffourd Invest’s contemporary art investment arm, launched in 2020, gave birth to Kastel: the first investment club dedicated to the Cultural and Creative Industries.
The art market works like the tech market.
The same discovery mechanics, the same career signals, the same trajectories. No one had yet structured it with the selection rigour of venture capital: that is what Kastel does, applying to living contemporary artists the methods proven on startups.
The art market beat the S&P 500 over 22 years
Source: Artprice100® and S&P 500 (Total Return), base 100 in January 2000. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
A thesis proven over 7 years
A selection from the private Daffourd collection 2021-2024: eleven artists acquired at studio price and supported over time, including Claire Tabouret, Robert Combas and JR.
Five artists a year, a discipline borrowed from venture capital.
Demanding selection
Five artists selected out of a hundred, assessed on ten criteria: price record, exhibitions, press, galleries, fairs. Each file goes through twelve to eighteen months of studio visits before a possible selection.
Acquisition at studio price
A direct relationship with the artist, who values the work as they would for themselves, without the intermediary margin of traditional galleries. An early entry, before the market prices the trajectory.
Active support
PR, museum placements, brand collaborations, price monitoring. The same intensity a VC fund deploys with its founders, transposed to the artist’s career over a three-to-five-year horizon.
A private club by co-optation, 50+ members.
Entrepreneurs, investors, collectors: Kastel gathers a community of enthusiasts around living contemporary artists, with experiences the general public never sees.
A collection at studio price
A deal flow of rare works offered at studio price: paintings, sculptures, series, multiples, works on paper. The work lives at your home.
Dinners in artists’ studios
Intimate encounters at the heart of the studios, over a meal with the artist and a small circle of members. Private commissions possible.
Artist residencies
Two-to-three-day immersions in residency. Experience creation from the inside, from first sketch to finished work.
Private places of the market
Private collections, preview fairs, established artists’ studios, closed-door openings. Everything the general public never sees.
“A bet on the rise of an artist’s price record, which Kastel helps drive up.”
Discover Kastel
Daffourd Invest’s contemporary art investment arm, launched in 2020, gave birth to Kastel: the first investment club dedicated to the Cultural and Creative Industries.
Kastel is a private club by co-optation. Investing in unlisted assets carries a risk of capital loss and illiquidity; past performance is not indicative of future results. Any potential investment opportunity is exclusively reserved for qualified informed investors, under a confidentiality undertaking.