borro’s customers seem to favour modern British art above all else, said the firm, with the loan value in fine art increasing by 28 per cent from the first to second half of last year. More and more valuable pieces are coming through the doors, such as a Henry Moore sculpture worth £50,000.

But an appetite for other categories is also to be expected, Paul Aitken, chief executive officer of borro told this publication. “We are seeing works by impressionist artists and contemporary artists which includes abstract impressionism and have continued to see a fair amount of Warhols and prints. However, we are currently seeing more and more enquiries and loans which primarily relate to oil paintings by artists of the 20th century,” he said.

“In a climate where loans from traditional sources are few and far between, we are seeing clients using high value fine art to unlock necessary finance. Obviously, prized pieces are hard to part with, in investment terms and from a sentimental perspective, so temporarily borrowing against them for quick liquidity is a savvy solution,” said Aitken. Art pieces are generally loaned for four to five months.

Various reasons have triggered this emerging trend, said the firm, from clients needing to pay for holidays and school fees to facilitating business transactions and funding property surveys.

As a sector, fine art now represents 29 per cent of borro’s overall loan book, and Aitken expects this increase to continue. “Since our launch in 2008, we have seen an annual percentage growth of 139 per cent in the value of loans against art year on year. We expect this trend to continue at least at this growth rate in 2013 as we’ve been getting more loans in the £250,000-£1 million bracket to sit alongside our core £10,000-£100,000 loans. In the last two weeks alone we have seen a massive surge in large fine art enquiries and are working on over £10 million worth of enquiries against fine art,” he said.

Launched in 2008, borro also lends against antiques, prestige cars, luxury watches, diamond jewellery, gold, yachts and fine wine, up to a loan value of £1,000,000 (around $1,530,000). The company opened a US business in 2012 and last October raised £36 million to accelerate rapid growth globally.