Maecenas ICO A possible love story for art lovers?

What is Maecenas?
Maecenas will democratize access to fine art by creating a decentralized art gallery — a truly open platform where anyone can own a piece of a Picasso. They are building a global art blockchain market where assets are traded quickly and fairly on a liquid exchange.
Artworks remain in custody of trusted institutions, vetted collectors and galleries. Investments are fully protected by insurance and a strong legal framework. Provenance documentation is protected by cryptography, thus making it impossible to falsify once it’s on the platform.
The platform also offers a curated, transparent market where the users can browse professionally vetted and curated artworks, compare historical prices and performance against market benchmarks. The platform makes it possible to build and manage a liquid portfolio of art-backed instruments, thereby eliminating the costs associated with investing in physical art.

The Fine Art Market
Fine art, as an asset class, is an integral part of a well-diversified portfolio.
PERFORMANCE OF FINE ART COMPARED TO OTHER ASSET CLASSES

Fundamental problems faced in the market

For investors, two of the fundamental problems in the markets are a lack of transparency and a lack of liquidity. Maecenas is offering that solution by creating an online marketplace where owners, collectors, and investors can meet without intermediaries to trade in real time. It is taking the idea of art funds, where art pieces are evaluated in financial terms, to a new level by giving investors the opportunity to have fractional ownership in artworks.
Maecenas can achieve this by using the blockchain to tokenise and digitally allocate single pieces, or portfolios, to several co-investors who can trade with other parties though an art exchange. While the owner retains 51% of the piece’s value, the remaining 49% can be traded, transforming the dynamics of the market and bringing much greater granularity to art investing. Prices will be market driven and faster digital transactions will create more data points than ever before, allowing investors to monitor the evolution of pieces in a way that has never been possible.

How it works
Will start by showing you the use for a gallery/
Chelsea Gallery wants to acquire a $3m piece to expand its Warhol collection.
Instead of getting a 3-year art -secured loan at a 13.5% annual interest, it can raise funds from Maecenas investors by listing some of their artworks at a 6% one-off fee.
This represents a saving of over $400k in fees for the galley.

Now let's see how I'd work with investors:
Charlott wants to invest $200k in Fine Art to diversify her portfolio. Her capital is too small for a Fine Art fund, and she is not interested in long maturity terms. If she were to buy it from an auctioneer she would be looking at a 20% fee in buyers` premium, which would make the investment considerably expensive. This is where Maecenas comes in, the platform will allow her to invest in a number of different pieces of art at a low 2% fee.

Finally, will take a look at how a collector might use the application.
Bob is a Modern Art collector who needs to finance the purchase of a new Jeff Koons sculpture worth $120k.
Instead of selling items from his collection, or getting an expensive loan, James gets the required funding by listing in Maecenas 20% of one of his flagship pieces of art.
James gets to keep his collection intact and can raise the needed capital at a much lower rate.

Conclusion
With Maecenas low fees and potential to allow pretty much anyone to invest in fine art I see this a platform that might rival galleries and traditional auction houses. With Maecenas decentralisation, one docent needs to really on the galleries or taking out loans. However, i do have some concerns when it comes to the whole selling a percentage of your artwork. Their site does offer a FAQ and it does seem to answer some basic questions like what happens if the owner physically sells the artwork?
I would suggest checking out the white paper on this platform to get a better idea of how it might all work to better understand it if my analyses left you confused.
The ICO is live now, and if you are a fellow fine art collector or investor i suggest investing in this as it has potential.

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References for this article was taken from:
https://www.maecenas.co/