Art Prices and Art Quality: Collecting The Right Piece
Image Credit: artprice.com; by Pierre Malbeck
Fine art collecting is risky business. Crooked, biased art dealers, forgeries and bad quality art threaten to water down what you get for your money. And personal failures to do diligent research and select only pieces worth buying can be dissatisfying. Although not everything is a threat, and many people will help you along your way, it pays off to keep something in mind: Alan Bamberger writes there are two axiomatic principles to art collecting: People want (1) good quality art, for (2) fair prices.
One measure of the quality of a piece of art is how it is priced relative to similar pieces. Presumably, the cheapest art in the range of prices won’t be the best quality or by the best artist. Consider simple, colorful abstract art within the last 10 years. Pierre Malbeck’s paintings range from the $7,000 to $12,000 range. Zin Helena Song’s paintings range from $3,000 to $7,500. Knöckel Reinöhl and Nancy Talero have art for $2,00 and $3,000. When choosing art between two and fourteen thousand dollars, its important not to lowball. The relative quality of the paintings, aside from subjective opinion, is clear from the price.
Collectors use this technique to identify and value various pieces. Some may buy only at the top of the range, others will purchase mid-level priced paintings. One this is for sure: staying in the lowest range of price guarantees you’re purchasing the lowest quality painting within the category.
Art advising is a relatively new profession designed to help collectors select art for purchase. In cases where art advisors are involved, many more metrics are used to select which artworks are worth a client’s money.
Image Credit: Singulart; By Knöckel Reinöhl
The Covid-19 pandemic has caused art openings and fairs to go online, art websites to spring up and social media facilitation of artist’s marketing. This push toward accessibility to art has caused more art to become available to view and purchase online. With more options, collectors can become aware of a wider range of sources from which to make selections of art.
Before the online revolution, most collectors were confined to the choices their local galleries offered. A particularly interesting story involves two art collectors, Herb and Dorothy Vogel, who amassed a multi-million dollar collection buying directly from New York artists. Though their modest income limited their choices, they made smart selections and the art they collected gained acclaim. They build their world-famous collection by engaging mostly artists of a single locale.
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Since digitization, the art market has become broader; with so much information available, there’s no excuse for ignoring signs of buying cheap art.
The moral of the story is: You get what you pay for. Higher quality art from acclaimed artists will not be junk. And avoiding junk is a core tenet of collecting art.