For two years, Adam Chinn, former chief operating officer of Sotheby’s, has quietly established a boutique art loan company, International Art Financing, with the support of members of the Nahmad family. Recent interview ArtnewsChinn revealed that the company has now paid nearly $400 million in loans and is expected to reach $500 million by the end of 2025.
Chinn is the latest arts industry veteran who can pierce art loans. Last fall, six art lenders of all sizes told Artnews Despite the high interest rates, the business is still booming.
The IAF claims to be at an advantage over competitors in terms of size and speed: Chinn says it can pay loans in 10 days, with a typical loan-to-value ratio of about 50%, although he says the loan ratio is higher in cases involving extraordinary collateral. The company offers short-term loans (usually six to twelve months) to bridge liquidity needs around sales, real estate plans or business operations.
The company’s average loan size is about $8 million, with several transactions exceeding $40 million. Clients range from blue-chip collections to artist estates and medium-sized galleries. Chinn said the disagreement between private collectors and trade clients is roughly even.
But the real differentiation of IAF may be its funding source – the billionaire Nahmad family, prolific collectors and dealers of ultra-blue chip art.
The fact that Nahmads not only supports the company, but also values the artwork internally has come under some scrutiny, given their in-depth involvement in the market. Despite this, Chinn insists that the IAF is a separate entity: “a separate legal entity, a separate procedure,” he said. “I don’t know what happened to their other business.” Additionally, Chinn said the IAF recently acquired lines of credit with a major European bank, which increased the company’s lending power.
When asked whether the internal links between the IAF and the Nahmad family could be conflicted in the event of a loan default, Chinn replied: “As creditors, we are responsible for the obligation to trade with the help of the borrower’s sincerity and fairness. So, so far, we have conducted an auction in the case of payment issues.”
IAF’s loans are non-recourse, which means that the artwork itself (not the borrower’s balance sheet) is collateral. The company conducts standard Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks, but does not evaluate the broader financial situation of the customers. “If it turns out that you are not an approved person and the artwork will be checked out, we will borrow it,” Chinen said.
In the company’s press release, Joe Nahmad positioned IAF as naturally expanding the family’s role in building collections for top clients for decades. “International art finance is the last part of the puzzle,” he said, referring to the platform as “at every stage of the collection journey” that supports collectors, dealers and estates.
The IAF did announce on Tuesday that it has secured $125 million in financing from an unspecified but “leading” European bank.
It is clear that Namad’s involvement has helped the company scale up rapidly. By contrast, it already occupies the fine arts group (which is a long-term player) About $400 million in loans. But Philip Hoffman, founder of FAG, told FAG Artnews It is expected to reach $1 billion in three years. He added that his company is funded by investors, and the IAF is “related to a family that can pull [funding] at any time,”
“We are neutral,” he added. “We have no conflict. We sell through people who do the best job for our customers.”
Other participants in the Art Finance Space include Sotheby’s Financial Services, which has originated from loans in 70 categories for more than $10 billion, including fine arts, cars, jewelry, whiskey and wine. In April, the auction house announced a $700 million securitization agreement called Sotheby’s Artfi Master Trust, aiming to expand its lending business. Major financial institutions such as Bank of America also offer art-backed loans, although terms vary widely based on the overall profile of the borrower and the broader banking relationship.
Like many art lenders, Chinn believes the industry is prepared for growth. Such loans have become a more important part of the financialization of the market, with institutions and individuals increasingly seeing art as a sacred object and an asset, often an extremely liquid item.
“There are more than a trillion dollars in art in private hands, and only one piece of leveraged is leveraged,” Chin said. “People borrow money every day. Why not art?”
