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ice THE TIMES Friday October 29 2010 Interiors The art of the home ieee - — Culture can be key | tothe marketing | of a grand property, writes Kasia Maciejowska = > owadays you have to try alittle harder to sell any house. For deluxe developers, having a mutually beneficial link with the fine-art | world isakey } strategy. At Frieze. the celebrity-soaked | \ autumn London art fair. the developer Oakmayne Bespoke held an exhibition — The House of the Nobleman— in one of the grand London town houses that it has for sale. The result? Significant interest in the two properties — offers of £29 million and £39 million —- with another to go on ihe market next year, along with the sale of six major artworks. | The properties in Cornwall Terrace | overlook Regent's Park, where the fair is held Frieze was attended by the world’s | wealthiest collectors, the highest-profile dealers, including Jay Jopling, curators for the top museums and art enthusiasts such as Claudia Schiffer, Gwyneth Paltrow and Lily Allen. The exhibition, held in conection with | the Saatchi Gallery, was curatedbytwo | Russians, Wolfe von Lenkiewicz and | Victoria Golembiovskaya. Mirax, the | Russian property firm owned by Sergei Polonsky, has a stake in the Cornwall Terrace project. Works by Cézanrie, Picasso, Andy Warhol, Tracey Emin.and Damien Hirsi were among those on show in the staircases, bathrooms and attics of the house. James Simpson, a partner at Knight Frank, says: “The interplay between luxury art and property sales has always existed, but it’s only now, starting with Cornwall Terrace, that we are formally doing launches and activities» that bring together the two.” Beth Dean, the sales and marketing director at Oakmayne, agrees: “Even at this top end of the property market, sales need to be ‘worked’ [tis no longer enough to do a basic stand-alone launch with a residential product. You need to.do something unique, stylish and very special to differentiate your brand.” Simpson says that there are more Damien Hirst works in the residences surrounding Regent's Park than in any other London location: “The marriage of t the classic Regency properties and } contemporary art works really well.” cornwallterrace.co.uk, knightfrank. co.uk, christiesgreatestates.com oo It is no longer enough to do } a stand-alone | | | launch, even at the top end of the market Main picture: The interior of a Cornwall Terrace mansion; Regent's Park, above, is just on the doorstep; and the art collector Claudia Schiffer, below, at this year’s Frieze art fair in London ures from | Christie’s and Knight Frank show that the purchase of a luxury property is frequently followed by a string of high-value art purchasés, Christie’s even takes ‘extremely valuable works | 1. tothe new home before il ' has been purchased, asa fest run. Ifitis not suitable, the piece is returned free of charge. Aroom is usually decorated in keeping with the work of art, | rather than the reverse. How topick | ‘upatfordable art without _ the hassle — : Anyone looking to pick up more : modestly priced works of art may : encounter an obstacle — a snooty gallery owner questioning you about : what pieces you already own, However, you can avoid such terrifying scenarios by buying online. Culture Label recently opened an online art shop, with work from.550 artists costing between £100 and £2,000. The shop is a collaboration with Own Art, an Arts Council initiative, through which you can pay in interest-free instalments. Meanwhile, the website easyart.com, which tailors its artworks to buyers with interior decoration in mind, has launched an iPhone app that lets you test 50,000 prints, in different frames, ina picture of the room that you wish to decorate. Nol everyone recommends buying online, however, as we discovered by asking top interior designers for their tips on purchasing art for yourhome. Joanna Wood, head of the eponymous loxury interior design firm, firmly states thal buying online is never a good idea for original artworks. “For a series of prints that you have seen before, online could be an option. But don't buy an original painting from a website because so much of it is about texture. | feel'and perspective.” Wood shops for works in the streets HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_028322 ‘ off Piccadilly, but also recommends the Art London fair for affordable | pieces, as does Anita Kohn, of the architectural firm Living in Space, who also loves the Affordable Art Fair. “The atmosphere is buzzy, the gallerists : are friendly and no piece costs more than £3,000,” she says. “1 used to buy randomly, but now I am more focused and collect works on paper — Old Master drawings or Impressionist works, often from sale rooms.” Kamini Ezralow, of the international ' design company Intarya, recommends scouring markets and galleries when travelling to pick up local art and craft pieces: “If you see a work in a gallery that you like closer to home, go back and ask to see more by the same artist. You can then build a relationship with that gallerist and use them as a regular source for pieces that suit your taste and : price capacity,” Kohn recommends starting with prints and advises shopping with an open mind “so that you don’t buy something purely because it fits with : your self-imposed criteria. The vital : thing is to buy something that you love, | because you will be looking at it every ingle day”.