These individuals invest in - or ''collect,'' as they prefer to say - art, be it contemporary or Old Masters, fine or folk.

Sometimes the motive for buying art can be disarmingly practical.

''You may need to have that special piece of art over the fireplace, behind the couch, or at the entrance hall,'' said veteran Atlanta art dealer Fay Gold.

But Gold adds this kicker: ''Whatever the reason, if you are going to spend a lot of money, you may as well buy something of value.''

Art is an ''alternative'' investment, as in alternative to stocks and bonds.

Besides art, alternatives include income-producing real estate, hedge funds, gold coins, precious metals and gems, commodities and futures, and every kind of collectible - baseball cards, stamps, Coca-Cola memorabilia, you name it.

In the conventional wisdom of Wall Street, tangible assets are attractive as inflation hedges in periods of rising prices - the kind of environment some economists see ahead.

There's another reason for the interest in alternative investments in recent years: the stock market's 46 percent descent from early 2000 to late 2002, which erased more than $8.5 trillion in market value for investors.

Enjoyable hobby: Enjoyment is what appeals most to Atlanta business executive Bob Hipps, an art collector.

''I don't think of art as an investment. I buy things I really like,'' said Hipps, a principal in Tatum Partners, a financial services firm.

''I enjoyed visiting museums and art galleries, and this led me to start buying some art for myself,'' he added. ''And I've been fortunate in that some of the art has appreciated and more than paid for my collection.''

The key word here is ''appreciation,'' which is the dollars-and-cents side of an otherwise aesthetic item.

Gold cited a photograph she sold to a client for $8,000 several years ago that is now worth an estimated $30,000 - a 275 percent appreciation in market value.

According to New York University's Mei Moses Fine Art Index, investment art produced an average annualized compound return of 11 percent in the 25 years through 2003. That's in the same ballpark as the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, which gained 13.8 percent over the same period.

In addition to the increase in art value, there has been an increase in the number of high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) available to buy art. These are people with $1 million or more in financial assets.

The Capgemini/Merrill Lynch ''World Wealth Report'' counted 2,272,000 HNWI in the United States in 2003.

Worldwide, there were 7.6 million HNWI in 2003, and 70,000 ''ultra-high-net-worth individuals'' - each with more than $30 million in financial assets.

The wealth controlled by these individuals totaled approximately $28.8 trillion, and is projected to exceed $40.7 trillion by 2008, said the Capgemini/Merrill Lynch 2004 report.

While the biggest portion of that wealth was in stocks (35 percent) and bonds (25 percent), 30 percent was in alternative investments and income real estate, and the rest in cash equivalents.

Range of investors: There's no single profile that fits all collector-investors. At the top of the list is the person who buys famous names. Owners of this art know their investments are safe.

More risky, but offering the prospect of greater reward - as with any other type of investment - are the works of new artists that attract the risk-taker.

Then there are the corporate investors. Corporate buyers want image-enhancing art for the firms, and executives are especially cognizant of art as an investment.

But before you rush down to the gallery and load up, investment advisers warn that investing in art may not be for everybody.

''You make money in art if you're able to hold it a long time,'' said Emily Sanders, president of Sanders Financial Management in Atlanta. ''That's why enjoyment is important.''

Art and other tangibles are not as liquid as stocks and bonds and may be hard to sell.

Value in the art world is also highly subjective, especially relating to contemporary works. And art doesn't generate income while you own it.

In addition, art and tangibles have ''carrying costs,'' said Sanders. This includes insurance and sometimes a safe place for storage.

If you sell through an art dealer, the dealer's commission is 10 percent to 20 percent, depending on the price of the art, Gold said.

Search for new art: For dealers such as Gold, locating new art is a never-ending task. It involves regular travel to art centers in the United States and overseas. It may involve detective work to discover older art that has been hidden away.

The challenge is identify potential in a new and untried artist - someone with a spark of brilliance that will one day be recognized by the public at large.

Despite the odds, collectors insist that art is not out of the question for investors of modest means.

Hipps suggests that potential investors visit art schools.

There's also eBay and the growing Internet market, which makes works available to a wider audience than traditional and more exclusive art auctions, such as those sponsored by auction houses Sotheby's and Christie's.

In the end, the investor/collector has the same thing in mind at an auction, at a gallery or on the Internet - finding the next Van Gogh and paying $200 for a painting that eventually will be worth $200,000.