When the Federal Reserve announced earlier this week that it was lowering its benchmark interest rate for the first time since December, Wall Street rejoiced. Stocks rallied on the news that the Fed had approved a drop of 0.25 percentage points, bringing rates to their lowest level since late 2022. While markets welcomed the prospect of cheaper money, the implications for the art world are less straightforward.
Anita Heriot, president of the Americas for the Fine Art Group, a London-based advisory and boutique art lender, was skeptical that the cut would dramatically alter the art market.
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“Buyers are still the buyers,” Heriot told ARTnews on Thursday. “A small percentage drop in interest rates isn’t going to make someone suddenly decide to spend $75 million. Those who were planning to buy are going to buy regardless.”
The real shift, according to Heriot, is in art lending—which bodes well for the Fine Art Group. Lower rates reduce borrowing costs, and that matters for collectors who use their holdings as collateral. “When rates go down, the number of clients looking to borrow against their art goes up,” she said. That, in turn, can fuel opportunistic buying. With prices softening, she added, “Now is the time to buy. We’ve been waiting for this moment.”
Joshua Greenberg, managing director and private client advisor at Bank of America Private Bank, echoed that view while taking a broader perspective. “It is a signal in terms of the direction of rates,” he told ARTnews. After a modest period of interest rate hikes and stability, “the market has an expectation that a trend of lowering interest rates has started.”
That expectation carries psychological weight, which often translates into market movement. In an environment where rates are rising, Greenberg explained, clients may be less likely to put capital into illiquid assets like art. But if they believe rates are headed down, they might feel more comfortable borrowing—especially since art loans are typically floating-rate and interest-only.
“In the environment where you see rates and the trends going down … you will feel perhaps better about that overall cost because your expectation is that your future cost is going down for carrying that debt,” he said.
A lower interest rate environment has the potential to increase demand for more illiquid real asset classes such as art over longer periods of time. Forecasts matter, too. Both Bank of America and the market at large are predicting as much as a one percent decline in rates over the next year, including this week’s cut.
While a quarter-point on its own won’t determine whether a collector buys a Hockney or a Picasso in Paris or London next month, the sense that borrowing will steadily get cheaper can nudge those sitting on the sidelines to reengage with the market.
The broader markets provide a useful cautionary parallel. Historically, when the Fed has resumed cutting rates after long pauses, stocks have almost always gone higher—in some cases spectacularly so. Since 1980, the S&P 500 has risen in every instance when cuts came near a record high, with average gains close to 14 percent. But this cut comes amid political turbulence. President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign on the Fed, legal battles over board members, and questions about the central bank’s independence form an unprecedented backdrop that could complicate the usual pattern.
Taken together, the comments suggest that the Fed’s move won’t create new buyers out of thin air, but it could grease the wheels for those already active: lowering borrowing costs, freeing up liquidity, and adding a layer of confidence.
As Heriot put it, the sky is hardly falling. If anything, the signal is that conditions are improving—and in the art market, sentiment often matters as much as money.