Art owners like the leasing idea because it gives them a new source of revenue that wasn't available before, according to Ian Peck, president and CEO of Fine Art Lease in Manhattan. The Internet has become a virtual showroom. Museums and private collectors have a way to showcase their art without having buyers troop through their warehouses or homes. Buyers, the majority of them corporations, can let their fingers do the walking to select what they want. It has a searchable database of paintings and sculpture ranging from the Renaissance to the present.
Buyers can either lease the art for as little as a day or purchase the art outright.
Fine Art Lease even has financing packages available. In addition, it can facilitate sale leasebacks, which allow an art owner to sell his art and enjoy it, too. Staffers are available to help art lovers assemble their own collections. Even the delivery people are skilled art experts. They will hang or install any purchase for the buyers if they wish.