The Case for Title Insurance

In this article highlighting the importance of title insurance for fine art, Stephen D. Brodie of Herrick, Feinstein LLP, finds that:

• The economic value of fine art has become high enough, and that the risk of a title problem is real enough, that it is time for convention to change.
• Title insurance is readily available today, and should become a standard feature of art purchases (and loans, eventually), at least above a certain price point.
• It is the collectors and the art advisors who can be the real agents of this particular change.
• If insurance came to be used widely enough to eliminate most title risks from the art business, premiums would go down, buyers would be more confident, lenders would make loans more readily available against art as collateral, and the entire market would ultimately benefit.