About BLI

Risk discipline, applied to art

BLI began with an observation from the other side of the table. The institutions that carry art exposure, insurers, brokers, and lenders, are asked to price it on evidence they would reject in any other class: appraisals years out of date, produced by parties with a commercial interest in the number.

Outside the top of the market, and outside Europe and North America, even that evidence thins to almost nothing. Which is precisely where the growth has been.

We track emerging artists across Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and SWANA against a documented methodology rather than a house view. Every artist passes objective gate conditions before scoring, and every score can be traced back to the signal that produced it.

We do not sell art, take positions, or accept commission on transactions. The only thing we have to defend is the method.

Leadership

Ashley M Hunter, Founder

I collect emerging artists. When I went looking for the data to insure what I owned, there was almost none. Valuations rested on opinion, nothing told me what my real exposure was, and there was no reliable way to think about the risk in the next artist I wanted to buy.

BLI started as the tool I needed for my own collection. Twenty five years of underwriting taught me what defensible evidence looks like. In the art market, I could not find anyone producing it.

  • More than 25 years of experience in the insurance and reinsurance field
  • Teaches risk at the University of Texas at Austin
  • Collector of emerging contemporary art
  • Classically trained violinist

Access

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