Oscars, Warhols and whisky: inside the weird world of luxury asset lending

Forget bricks and mortar — from Oscars to rare whisky, luxury assets are becoming the new collateral of choice in Britain’s growing bridging market.

Suros Capital, a specialist in lending against high-value possessions, is carving out a niche by financing deals secured against everything from Warhol paintings and Rolex watches to gold bullion and Banksy prints.

Ray Palmer, director at Suros, told Business Matters the firm’s loan book includes some of the strangest transactions in the market. Among them: a £6m loan against 21,000 bottles of wine stored in a Second World War bunker, a £60,000 Macallan whisky bottle, and even an Academy Award. Other approaches — ultimately rejected — included racehorses, Fabergé eggs and a bizarre offer of 50 tonnes of dirt supposedly containing 2% gold.

But the glamour comes with unique challenges. Unlike property, where value and authenticity are straightforward, luxury asset lending requires rigorous checks. “We have to prove that a Rolex is a genuine Rolex or that a wine can be traced back to the vineyard,” Palmer explained. “Forgery in the art world is rife, so we use everything from auction history to x-rays and UV light to authenticate items.”

Suros relies on a network of auction-house professionals and maintains its own £30m cash vault with £300m of insured jewellery inside to secure loans. Despite the eccentric assets, Palmer says the principles remain the same: speed, valuation, and risk control.

The firm believes lending against art could grow as sellers hold onto pieces during a market downturn, using them as security instead of offloading at low prices. Still, managing expectations remains tough. “Most people overestimate what their assets are worth,” Palmer admitted.

Read more:
Oscars, Warhols and whisky: inside the weird world of luxury asset lending