A published, methodology-backed grade for art as a lending asset. One letter for how strong a market is, how easily a work sells, and how well its value holds. Built for art-backed lending and credit decisions, on the same data behind the index.
Art-backed lending has grown quickly, and most of it still runs on a valuation nobody outside the deal can check. Ratings gives African art a single letter grade instead: for an artist, one work, a gallery’s programme, or a whole portfolio. It says how strong the market is, how easily the asset would sell, and how well its value has held up. It is built to be relied on for a lending or credit decision, not to be a private opinion between an owner and an appraiser.
The valuation behind every grade comes from the same published index method used everywhere else on this site, computed before and independent of the grade it feeds. It goes through the same review standard applied to every figure Okasen publishes before it’s issued. Below: what a grade covers, who typically asks for one, and how it actually gets built.
A grade is always an opinion about the asset — its market depth, how readily it trades, how stable its value has been. It is never an opinion about the creditworthiness of the artist, gallery, owner, borrower, or any other person or entity involved, and it is not a substitute for a lender’s own underwriting. Reliance on an issued rating is governed by the engagement that produced it; see Disclosures.
How strong the artist's market is overall: how established it is, how steadily work trades, and how value has held across cycles. It's the same read a lender checks before any single work by that artist goes up as collateral.
One specific work: its medium, period, provenance, and condition, weighed alongside the artist's own market.
A gallery's inventory as collateral: the depth of the roster, the exhibition and sales record, and how the artists it represents have actually performed in the market. This grades the inventory a lender would hold as security, not the gallery as a business — it is not an opinion on the gallery's own creditworthiness or its ability to meet its obligations.
A collection as a whole, as collateral: how concentrated it is across artists and markets, how liquid it is, and how its combined value would be expected to hold together, not just add up. This grades the works in the portfolio, not the owner's, borrower's, or fiduciary's own credit standing.
A work; each row is one artist What the grade covers
Owner, borrower, gallery or estate
Holds the work. Not graded.
The work or collection, as collateral
This is what gets the grade.
Lender
Relies on the grade. Judges the borrower itself.
You want to borrow against a work or a collection, and you need something a lender will actually accept, not a private opinion between you and an appraiser. If you want help with the collection itself, not just the loan, Okasen Advisory can do that too.
A programme or a collection under your care that needs to stand as loan collateral, one letter per work or across the whole holding. The same standard applies whether it's a single consignment or an entire programme — and the grade always speaks to the collateral, never to your own standing as its custodian.
A grade built to be relied on for a lending decision: a fixed valuation with published asset-risk criteria — liquidity, market depth, price stability — applied on top, not a number shaped by what the party requesting it wants to hear. It grades the collateral, not the borrower’s, gallery’s, or fiduciary’s own creditworthiness — that stays yours to assess. See how the two stay separate below.
The valuation under a grade comes from the same published index method as everything else here. It does not change based on who asks for the rating.
The grade is then applied on top of that fixed valuation, against written, asset-side criteria: liquidity, market depth, price stability. It is never folded into the value, and it is never a judgment on the creditworthiness of the artist, gallery, owner, or borrower involved — only on the asset itself.
Governed by a published standard, the same one every figure on this site is held to.
A valuation is just a number. A rating is that same valuation, pulled from the public index, plus a letter grade for how strong the market is, how easily the asset would sell, and how stable its value has been. The grade is what a lender actually underwrites against.
One letter for market strength, liquidity, and value stability of the asset being offered as collateral, so a lender can compare very different things, say an artist's whole market against one gallery's programme, without redoing the analysis behind either. It is not an opinion on the borrower's, gallery's, or fiduciary's own creditworthiness — that assessment stays the lender's own.
It starts with a request below. An advisor usually gets back to you within two working days to scope out what's being rated and what you need it for.
Ratings is built for lending and credit decisions specifically. If you need a valuation for insurance, estate, or anything else, get in touch and we'll point you in the right direction.