Luxury Assets
The luxury market is constantly growing and evolving, as tastes change. We advise on private jets, yachts, art, fine wine, bloodstock and classic cars as well as helping clients to purchase and sell musical instruments, jewellery and gemstones, handbags and watches. We know that our clients are passionate about their luxury assets and count ourselves fortunate to be working with these beautiful objects on a daily basis.
Our luxury assets team includes our contentious and non-contentious specialists from across the firm covering wealth, trusts and estates, corporate, property, family and divorce, tax and litigation. The firm’s breadth of expertise, grounded by years of experience, allows us to advise on a wide range of legal issues such as the sale, acquisition, financing and structuring of luxury yachts and aircraft assets, including business and private jets and helicopters.
We have a dedicated arts team who specialise in art litigation, investment, sale, purchase, loan and financing. With the art market continually evolving and now digitising, the team are known for their forward thinking expertise, covering not just classic and fine art but also NFTs.
Since the 1990s, fine wine has established itself as an attractive, long-term proposition for an investor, often through specialist wine funds. Many find wine easier to understand than art or other non-traditional forms of investment, and it carries with it some useful tax advantages. We have a long history of advising leading wine brands. Our team is acutely aware of the nuances of the fine wine market, the taxation of wine and the aspects that buyers need to consider to safeguard their assets.
The team’s classic car expertise has grown from clients, who are classic car connoisseurs who love to race and build their collections. We have advised on numerous private treaty transactions, including the purchase of (at the time) the most expensive car in the world for $35m. This figure has since been surpassed, but we continue to advise collectors, auction houses and dealers on a range of commercial issues affecting classic cars. If those issues turn into disputes, we understand the peculiarities of the car trade and the difficulties that can arise, particularly when it comes to title, sub-standard restorations and breaches of contract.