When most people think of investing, two things come to mind: the stock market and real estate. However, there are other forms of investing. Indeed, investing is anything that allows you to make more than you put in to buy something, or acquire shares of something. This means that forex trading, futures investing, commodities trading and even buying art or jewelry can be considered investing. And one of the growing investing trends, Pamela Brown, a representative of MutualArt.com and The Rosen Group tells me, is art investing:

The art market has a $45 billion turnover and it’s not just the super rich collecting art anymore. Walk through Art Basel in Switzerland or the auction houses in New York City, and you’ll see men and women in their 20s and 30s searching for art work by new and established artists.

Should you get involved with art investing?

I’m not really an art connoisseur — not even close. But my husband got some nice, original pieces of unframed art while abroad. One is a beautifully done cross stitch and the other is an original charcoal drawing. I had them both framed professionally with high-grade materials, and then we had them looked at by a professional dealer. Now, they aren’t worth a whole lot, but each is worth about $450 more than we spent buying and framing them. On paper, we’ve got a $900 return on our investment. It’s not a great deal of money, but we’re satisfied.

The idea is to look for inexpensive original art that is likely to appreciate in value. At MutualArt.com, there is a story about Sichuan paintings, and how they are likely to gain a wider following and more attention in the near future. Is that something you should invest in? Buy a couple of pieces of Sichuan art and then hope that the added attention makes them more valuable?

As with all investing, art investing carries risk. Which means that what you buy has the potential to lose in value. But it you enjoy art, and if you want to diversify into something tangible, art investing may not be a bad idea. You need to have a good feel for what will become desirable. Otherwise, you might end up buying something (or a lot of somethings) that aren’t worth much. Which brings me to another point. Buy something you enjoy. That way, if you end up buying “wrong,” you’ll still have art you can stand to look at.