Hedge Fund Art By Adam Dant

Filed in archive Hedgetalk on November 6, 2007

In a Guardian Unlimited story, "The Hogarth of hedge funds offers a glimpse into a hidden world",
Adam Dant spends six months documenting the mysterious lives of the wizards of finance.

"He spent time, in particular, in the office of Clareville Capital, based in Westminster. Though his resulting works are an amalgam of a number of offices, his piece The Art of Hedge, showing a cutaway of a Georgian house on the fictitious Hedge Row, draws extensively on the sketches he made at Clareville, which is chaired by former Tory treasurer Lord Marland," according to the article.

Dant, whose manner in the drawings is broadly Hogarthian, made visual inventories of the sort of items - and people - inside such offices. He also spent time following the hedge-fund managers around their chosen haunts - "though, alas, I never got invited on anyone's yacht".

He saw the hedgies disport themselves at Annabel's nightclub and private gambling establishments such as Crockford's in Curzon Street and the nearby Aspinall's, founded by John Aspinall, perhaps most famous as a chum of Lord Lucan. He saw them quaff cocktails at Harry's Bar on Mount Street, and buy up art at Sotheby's, Christie's and the best contemporary art galleries. "It's a very small world," said Dant. "They buy art from White Cube, because it's a reputable name. If you buy your shotgun from Purdey and have your shoes bought in Jermyn Street, you buy your art from White Cube."

Rest of the story at Guardian Unlimited.