The
(Top to bottom) York
Boat on Lake Winnipeg;
Karlukwees, B.C., both
By Walter J. Phillips.
Business
Art
of
Prominent gallery owners share their
insights on buying and collecting art
PHOTOGRAPHS: COURTESY LOCH GALLERY
by ellis choe
David Loch, a prominent Canadian
art dealer who owns Loch Gallery
in Winnipeg, Calgary, and Toronto,
started his career buying art in
hotel rooms.
“Long before cell phones, I would
lock myself in a hotel room for a
week,” says Loch, whose career
began 44 years ago. “I’ve never
been in a jail but that’s what it
felt like. I couldn’t leave the room. I
would pace that room like a caged
lion swearing I’d never do this
again and then I’d get a call that
was worthwhile.”
His patience and hard work paid
off as he built up a clientele base
and a reputation that led him to
receive a phone call one day from
Lord Ken Thomson, the late mediamogul billionaire and renowned
avid art collector. That was the
beginning of a 15-year-friendship
that led Loch to acquire many
pieces for Thomson, most notably
Paul Kane’s rare 1845 painting,
Scene in the Northwest: Portrait of
John Henry Lefroy for almost $5.1
million in 2002. It set the record
for the highest amount ever paid
for a Canadian work of art sold at
auction.
Despite his successes, Loch’s
voice grows wary at the notion of
art as an investment.
“If you’re only interested in
investing, then go to the stock
market,” says Loch. “Don’t come
into the art market thinking that
you will get rich on what you’re
buying. It’s long term and you’d
better love what you’re doing.”
“Investors never make money,”
says Rod Green, owner of 40-yearold Masters Gallery in Calgary.
“Collectors do. Collecting is a longterm goal.”
With technology, globalization
and emerging wealth economies,
2014 saw the global art market
reach its highest ever record level
of sales at $76.8 billion according
to The European Fine Art Fair Art
Market Report 2015.
For self-described “art addict”
and collector Walker McKinley,
a partner at McKinley Burkart
Architecture and Interior Design
in Calgary, it’s never been about
the money. He insists he has
never bought art for investment
purposes.
“I am an aesthetically driven
person and visual arts have a
very strong emotional draw for
me,” says McKinley. “So if I love it,
I have to buy it. But the art that
I’ve bought has outperformed the
markets every year. Not that I care
in the slightest, because I’ll never
sell it.”
Mrs. Theodosia Dawes Bond
Thornton held her collection for 58
years. The Montreal woman was
a passionate fan of the Group of
Seven and their contemporaries. In
fact, she corresponded with some
of them directly and purchased
works directly from Lawren Harris,
A.Y. Jackson and Arthur Lismer. She
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