London, May 13, 2008 - Lucian Freud's masterpiece, Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, is set to break the £11m record for a living artist at Christie's today. Richard Evans, associate director at Aon Private Clients, comments on protecting your art investments:

"Just 14% of UK individuals feel confident investing in art during today’s economic volatility, according to Aon’s forthcoming survey, but the rush for quality art shows no signs of abating.

"You can't insure against a downturn in the modern art market so the key piece of advice is to make sure you also find your investment aesthetically pleasing.

"Art collectors have the flexibility of an automatic acquisition clause. This means that they can purchase a piece for an agreed percentage of their total insured art and it will be covered from the close of auction. For example, a collector with £100 million collection would be able to buy up to say, 20%, of this amount with the flexibility of having usually up to a month before declaring it on their insurance policy. If the auction price exceeds the agreed percentage, the purchaser must automatically contact their insurer or broker.

"If the painting goes for the sale price, we'd recommend other collectors look to revalue their Freud pieces. As with the increased popularity with Lowry, our collectors ensured their investments were adequately covered to reflect their new potential value.

"With only 14% of 2,031 survey respondents feeling confident in art, this is a decrease from 38% in 2006 when Aon surveyed the public about alternative investments to pensions two years ago in 2006."