Masterworks Review 2026: 33 Art Sales and 265 NAVs in SEC Filings

What you buy: a share of one painting, through two layers of companies

Each Masterworks offering sells Class A shares at $20.00 in a company that owns one artwork, through a segregated portfolio of a Cayman Islands company, Masterworks Cayman, SPC. Until 2026 each painting had its own Delaware LLC (Masterworks 001, LLC and so on). Newer works are sold as series of a Delaware series LLC (Masterworks Vault 1 to 5), and in 2026 the older single-painting LLCs were merged into series of Masterworks Vault 10 to 20. The offering is Regulation A Tier 2, so non-accredited investors can buy, subject to the 10% of income or net worth limit.

What Masterworks earns is set out in the offering circulars:

The management fee does not show up as a cash charge. It shows up as a smaller slice: the Administrator’s shares are counted in the NAV per Class A share, and for many series they are preferred, with a $20.00 per share liquidation preference over the ordinary shares. That is one reason a series can carry a NAV below $20.00 even if the painting’s appraisal has not fallen: the investor paid $20.00 for a share of a company that spent 10% to 11% of the raise on the expense allocation and then issues 1.5% more equity every year.

Every sale reported on Form 1-U

Masterworks reports a sale in two steps: a Form 1-U when it agrees to sell or consigns, and another when the sale closes, with the distribution per Class A share and, since 2022, a “net annualized return”. We read every Item 1 Form 1-U filed by the 310 Masterworks entities on EDGAR and found 33 completed sales with a distribution. Masterworks’ October 5, 2026 offering circular gives the same number: “Each of the 33 Artworks sold by Masterworks-affiliated Regulation A issuers as of the date of this offering statement was sold at a net sales price exceeding the sum of the total offering amount of the applicable issuer or series, plus all administrative fees and expenses.”

“Our total return on $20” is the distribution divided by $20.00, minus one (our arithmetic). It is what an investor who bought in the offering and held to the sale received before taxes, without any time value; anyone who bought on the secondary market paid a different price. Seven of the 33 sales were works by Cecily Brown. For the 25 numbered LLCs, the time from SEC qualification to the first sale report ran from 2.7 months (Masterworks 181) to 58.5 months (Series 075), median 24.6 months (our arithmetic from EDGAR dates; the offering usually closes some weeks after qualification).

Two things to read into this table. First, the premise that every Masterworks sale was profitable holds for the sales on record: the lowest distribution, $20.63 for Masterworks 078, still beat $20.00, and Masterworks itself reports a 4.1% annualized return on it. Second, the headline percentages are IRRs. A short hold turns a modest gain into a very large annual rate: Series 373 reported 788.9% and Series 443 reported 351.8%, on total gains of 18.9% and 17.0% (our arithmetic). The longest holds earned the least per year: Masterworks 006 (Basquiat, $8,000,000) 6.3%, Masterworks 067 (Hockney) 6.0% and Series 075 (Richter) 6.6%.

Sales do not always close. On June 22, 2026, Masterworks Vault 3, LLC reported that a buyer for the Yayoi Kusama owned by Series 474 had agreed to buy through a gallery, but “the Buyer did not make payment and the sale was not consummated”; no distribution was paid and the series continues.

The unsold majority: what Masterworks’ own NAVs said in May 2026

The other side of the record is the works still held. Masterworks publishes an “Estimated NAV Per Share” every quarter on Form 1-U for each series: the most recent appraisal of the artwork, done by its own employees and reviewed annually by an outside appraiser, less the Class B profit share and the management fee preference, divided by all Class A shares including the Administrator’s. Masterworks 001, LLC, the first issuer (a Warhol that was consigned in May 2022 and has not been sold), reported $16.37 as of March 31, 2026.

In April and May 2026 Masterworks filed offering statements for Masterworks Vault 10 to 20, LLC to absorb the single-painting LLCs. Each statement has a Series Offering Table that values every series at its NAV per Class A share “as of the most recent practicable date” (for Series 001, $16.37, the March 31, 2026 figure). We read all eleven tables: 265 series.

The lowest were Series 100 at $6.96, Series 162 at $8.05 and Series 233 at $8.30; the highest Series 026 at $39.57, Series 007 at $34.18 and Series 044 at $28.63. Weighted by shares, the 41,342,158 Class A shares in these tables were valued at $759,746,872 against $826,843,160 at $20.00, or 91.9% (our arithmetic). Larger series tended to carry higher NAVs than small ones.

Two cautions cut in opposite directions. The NAV is Masterworks’ appraisal, not a price anyone paid, and it can be too low: the three rolled-up series that sold afterwards had NAVs of $18.06 (Series 075), $22.14 (Series 214) and $20.56 (Series 232) in the tables and distributed $25.93, $26.37 and $28.06. It can also be too high, and nothing forces a sale: a series is sold when Masterworks’ board decides, and the October 2026 circular says it expects holding periods of 3 to 10 years. What the record does show is selection: the 33 sales are the works Masterworks chose to sell, and on Masterworks’ own appraisals four in five of the works it still held in May 2026 were worth less per share than investors paid.

The 2026 roll-up and the 287 exit reports

On May 29, 2026, Masterworks 001, LLC filed a Form 1-U saying that on or around May 31, 2026 Masterworks planned to “roll up” the company into a series of a Delaware series LLC with the same assets, board, capitalization and share ownership, at no cost to investors, and with no expected tax impact. The same happened to every unsold numbered LLC. On June 29, 2026, 267 of them filed Form 1-Z, the exit report that ends Regulation A reporting, each stating approximately 0 holders of record; the shareholders now hold shares of a series of Masterworks Vault 10 to 20, which file their own reports (all eleven filed semiannual reports on Form 1-SA on September 28, 2026). The other 20 numbered LLCs had filed a 1-Z between December 2020 and December 2024 after selling their artwork.

For a holder, this means the paperwork moved: search EDGAR for the Vault entity, not the old “Masterworks 0XX, LLC” name. The Vault 11 circular says the purpose is to reduce the number of issuer entities and that “No person will earn any fees in connection with the Offering”.

Secondary market: what the filings say about trading

Masterworks’ resale history runs in three stages, each from its own filings:

None of the filings we read reports trading volume, number of trades or prices on the ATS. The October 2026 circular warns that under a bulletin board “transaction volume is expected to be extremely low”. The 2020 filing already said “we do not expect the Secondary Market will provide a reliable or effective means of price discovery”. So the premise that a secondary market exists is true today, with two qualifiers from Masterworks itself: trading is thin, and the ATS is scheduled to end in December 2026.

What regulators have said on record

The Texas order lists as mitigating factors that the company received no selling commission on the Texas sales and that the sales caused “no known direct consumer harm”. The Tennessee and Maryland entries come from the Form ADV of Masterworks Advisers, LLC (CRD 324239, filed July 29, 2026), which states for both that no investor harm was alleged; we could not download the Maryland order itself (the state site returned an access error). The same Form ADV shows no civil judicial action, and the Vault offering circulars state that no legal proceedings are pending that would have a material effect. We searched SEC litigation releases and administrative proceedings and found none naming Masterworks. Masterworks is not a FINRA member: BrokerCheck returns only the investment adviser, Masterworks Advisers, LLC, which reported $8,063,964 of regulatory assets under management in 1,045 accounts.

The company behind the shares

The circulars are frank about the sponsor’s finances. The October 5, 2026 Vault 3 circular says “Masterworks has generated operating losses and negative cash flows from operations since 2022” and that it funds operations through periodic sales of the management fee shares it earns. It also says Masterworks entered into a revolving secured note with the Lynn Family Trust 001 and pledged substantially all of its assets, including its equity in the issuers. A related private vehicle, Masterworks Management Fee Collection, LLC, reported on a Form D/A of August 17, 2026 that it had sold $17,523,480 to 205 investors with a $50,000 minimum. On September 1, 2026 the chief executive and chief financial officer of the issuers, Nigel Glenday, resigned and the founder, Scott Lynn, took those roles, per Form 1-U reports and 253G2 supplements filed on September 2, 2026.

Why it matters: the Administrator pays storage, insurance and reporting for every series and is reimbursed on sale. A sponsor that sells its fee shares to fund itself has a reason to want liquidity, and the circular itself warns that the alignment between Masterworks and investors “may not exist in the future”.

Masterworks against real estate Reg A offerings

Art shares and real estate Regulation A offerings use the same exemption but give investors different things: no rent, no distribution until a sale, and a value set by appraisal of a single object. Our study of real estate Reg A offerings in 2025-2026 covers the same forms (1-A, 253G2, 1-Z) for property issuers. The general risk list in real estate crowdfunding risks and the question of whether crowdfunding is safe apply here too: illiquidity, sponsor dependence and valuations set by the sponsor.

What an investor can do with this

• Look up your series by its new name. If you held Masterworks 0XX, LLC, your shares are now in a series of Masterworks Vault 10 to 20; its quarterly NAV comes on Form 1-U under the Vault’s CIK.
• Compare the NAV with $20.00, not with the sale record. The 33 sales show what Masterworks sold; the NAV is what its appraisers say the rest is worth today.
• Read the IRR next to the distribution. A large annualized figure on a short hold may be a gain of 15% to 20%.
• Plan for no exit before a sale. The ATS is scheduled to end around December 14, 2026; the bulletin board that replaces it is expected to have very low volume.
• Count the fees in shares. The 1.5% a year comes out of your ownership; the expense allocation came out of the money you invested on day one.

FAQ

Sources: SEC EDGAR filings of 310 Masterworks entities read on October 11, 2026, including the Form 1-U sale reports of each sold series (for example Masterworks 010, LLC 0001493152-22-032220; Masterworks Vault 13, LLC 0001493152-26-042759), the Form 1-A/A offering circulars of Masterworks Vault 10 to 20, LLC filed May 6 and 8, 2026 (Series Offering Tables), the Form 1-A POS of Masterworks Vault 3, LLC filed October 5, 2026 (0001493152-26-045767), 253G2 supplements of Masterworks Vault 5, LLC (July 17 and September 1, 2026), Form 1-U and 1-Z filings of Masterworks 001, LLC, the Form D/A of Masterworks Management Fee Collection, LLC and the SEC order of July 1, 2022 on Masterworks Collection 001, LLC; the Texas State Securities Board consent order REG-24-CAF-04 (June 17, 2024); the Form ADV of Masterworks Advisers, LLC (CRD 324239) filed July 29, 2026; and FINRA BrokerCheck. Counts, medians, sums and total returns are our arithmetic from those filings. We have no relationship with Masterworks and earn nothing if you invest. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.