Artist Pension Trust

The Artist Pension Trust (APT) was started by entrepreneur Moti Shniberg and economist Dan Galai in 2004. Former SFMOMA and Whitney Museum director David A. Ross was its founding President, followed by leading financiers Bijan Khezri as CEO and Gary Fuhrman as Chairman. The purpose of the organization is to provide long-term financial security to artists who otherwise may not have a retirement plan. Artist Pension Trust (APT) is the first investment program created specifically to provide emerging and mid-career artists with a long-term financial planning opportunity through the collective contribution of their artworks.

Each Trust consists of up to 250 artists, signing 50 artists per year over a five-year period. APT consists of eight individual Trusts, developed around 8 major art centers: New York, Los Angeles, London, Berlin, Mumbai, Beijing, Mexico City and Dubai.

Participating artists deposit 20 works of art over a fifteen to twenty-year period. The ownership of the artworks is retained by the artists, while the APT Collection is stored and insured by APT until the work is sold. The collection can be viewed online, and is made available to curators and institutions for exhibition during this period. Artists do not have to pay for any of these services up front. The APT model ensures that upon the sale of artworks every artist benefits from participation on an annual basis: 40 percent of the net proceeds derived from the sale of an artwork will go straight to the artist whose work was sold; 32 percent will go into a Pool from which all artists will receive a pro-rata share tied to their artwork investments; 28 percent is retained by APT to cover operational costs.

The growing collection currently stands at 10,000 artworks and represents more than 1,500 artists from over 70 countries. Through the APT website at www.aptglobal.org, curators can browse the collection, research artists, and initiate the loan process.