Artists brace for super fallout

ARTISTS are revolting against proposed changes to superannuation funds, which they say will cause ''untold damage'' to the art industry.

Australian Artists Association executive director Tom Lowenstein said many artists, dealers, auction houses and collectors were ''quite outraged'' by the Cooper review.

''In my 40-year involvement with the arts I have not found an issue which has unified the arts community more than your … recommendation that [self-managed super funds] be banned from investing in art, and that they divest their art investments over the next

10 years,'' Mr Lowenstein wrote last week to the Superannuation System Review chairman, Jeremy Cooper.

Mr Lowenstein, who is also the convener of the Save Super Art campaign, declared the Cooper review on superannuation was ''fundamentally flawed'' in assuming art is a collectable and should not be counted as an investment that boosted retirement savings.

Unlike coins, stamps and exotic cars, art is created, not merely traded, generating economic activity, particularly in indigenous communities.

''In many instances art is the prime source of the community's income and livelihood, and the impact of a decrease in funds could be disastrous,'' Mr Lowenstein said.

If implemented, the estimated $100 million invested in art by self-managed super funds each year would be lost, ''damaging an industry which is still learning to cope with the global economic crisis''.

Mr Lowenstein accused the Cooper review of making ''damaging recommendations simply on a hunch … without any genuine evidence that there is, in fact, a problem''.

Bernie Ayres, a retired public servant from Canberra, has written to Arts Minister Peter Garrett expressing his concern about the Cooper review. He said he had bought and sold more than 60 paintings through his family super fund, and ''over the past two years, our art portfolio has significantly outperformed our share portfolio''.

He would not buy any more art if such purchases through super funds were prohibited.