Readers could be forgiven for thinking that "emotional asset" is a term devised by marketeers to gently refer to investments that make grown men cry - indeed, GoldFinger has this year mistaken the look of many a financier for a likeness of Edvard Munch’s The Scream - but that assumption would be incorrect.

The term has in fact been coined by Emotional Asset Management and Research, a new fund that aims to invest in tangible, scarce and collectable objects via a combination of a fund of funds structure (60 per cent of investment) and direct positions (40 per cent).
 
The objects of the fund are not restricted to those that elicit an emotional response in their beholders - as would a painting by Reubens or, arguably, a shark in a tank - but also assets whose value is to an extent tied to some sentimental attachment, such as a Roman coin or Stradivarius. So the question for the sophisticated investor is not so much "is it art?" but "is it a photograph, rare stamp, musical instrument, diamond, vintage watch, piece of jewellery or ceramics, modern design, rare manuscript or map, antique carpet, piece of architecture or rare antiquity?"

As with all the finer things in life timing is everything, and EAMR believes the time is ripe for investing in these alternative assets. With expectations of inflation on the rise, investors are looking to hedge against it with tangible commodities such as gold, the price of which has shot up in recent months and which is currently being sold by the bar in Harrods. The five-year closed fund aims to cash-in on a sharp rise in the value of the aforementioned asset class, driven by medium-term inflation.

An important difference between assembling a personal collection of objets d’art and this fund is that investors in emotional assets do not get to take the product home. But while Richard Attenborough, for example, recently sold his personal collection of 50 paintings for £4.6 million ($7.7 million) - including Lowry's "Old Houses" which fetched £881,000 - there is less money to be made from collecting than investing.

“Invest in what other people collect, not what others invest in,” said Bernard Duffy, managing director of Emotional Asset Management and Research.

“If you follow that strategy, chances are you will be the last one holding that piece, and that could be a contemporary art piece, it could be any art. Investing in what other people collect will be a very important principle of the way this fund is going to be managed. This is for high net worth and ultra high net worth individuals who are looking for something completely different; we are not like any other art fund,” said Mr Duffy.

Compared to the contemporary art bubble of the 1990s, when collectors could buy almost anything - regardless of artistic merit - and sell it on for a profit, GoldFinger is pleased to report the art world has become much more discerning. Hence art and collectables can now be taken more seriously as an asset class and even though GoldFinger’s prized personal collection won’t be on sale anytime soon, it may soon be possible for others to profit from emotional assets without the pain of parting with such treasures.