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Welcome to collectors of fine art everywhere!
This is our second issue of "The Fine Art Of Collecting Art."
We hope you will enjoy it enough to continue your free
subscription and to tell your friends about us. Thank you for
your patience while you waited for us to publish this second
issue.
Buying Art On The Internet.
The benefits and drawbacks of buying art online is a topic
that has been hotly debated among collectors, artists, and
gallery owners for a number of years now.
If you listen to gallery owners you might think that you are
taking your life in your hands to make an online purchase of
fine art, and yet most galleries today have a website to try to
capture the online market! Purchasing art online is fast
becoming the best and easiest way to buy art.
Traditionally collectors were tethered to their regional art
galleries and occasional trips to larger art markets to
purchase art for their collections. Today savvy art collectors
know that they can visit the studios of hundreds of thousands
of artists online as well as galleries worldwide from the comfort
of their own home or office. So many choices. So Little time.
So how does a collector sift through all of these online venues
to find just the right art to buy?
Before you buy a work of art from any artist do your
homework.
1. Is the price realistic for the career level of the artist whose
work you are interested in? If the artist is an emerging artist
his or her prices should be lower than an artist who is
established.
2. Does the artist produce art on a regular basis? If you are
building a collection you need to make sure the artist will
continue to produce.
3. Is the artist gallery represented or was in the past? This
tells you that the artist's work is considered collectible by art
dealers and collectors already.
4. Does the artist have a museum history? Even better for
collecting, and not necessarily out of your price range. Many
artists will accept a "best offer" so don't be afraid to make one!
5. Is the artist a listed artist? That means can you document
the artist? This is important! If you should ever need to de
accession a work from your collection you will get more money
for it if the artist is listed. You can search for an artist through
ArtPrice.com. This resource is widely used by auction houses
and galleries.
Armed with all this knowledge you are now ready to wade
through the thousands of Internet Art Sites. Many collectors
start with eBay. A word of caution here. Many eBay artists
have never been represented by a commercial gallery and
yet are eager to provide you with a Certificate of Authenticity
for the "Gallery Price". The truth here is that there is no
marker for the "gallery price" unless the artist has been
gallery represented. An appraiser is likely to tell you the
piece your COA says is worth $500.00 is probably worth
$100.00 or less.
There many wonderful artists selling on eBay, and as long as
you have done your research you will know how much to pay
or offer.
Artmajeur is another site for finding great art work. There
are many artists worldwide who maintain websites through this
site. You have the opportunity to communicate directly with
the artist and make offers on their work. This site maintains
a mirror site in China giving the artists who have listed works
there a truly worldwide audience.
Yessy is a relatively new site that hosts artists' works. It is
easy to navigate, and to make purchases through. Yessy
takes a 10% sales fee on the sale of each work. Contact the
artist before you buy to ask about a 10% reduction in price if
you buy directly from the artist.
Right now is a good time to be acquiring "blue chip" original,
prints. These are prints produced using traditional printing
processes such as intaglio etchings, hand pulled lithographs,
hand pulled serigraphs, and monotypes. There are some
amazing opportunities available in the present market for
prints by Chagall, Dali, and Picasso to Fairfield Porter. eBay
is a great source for these prints.
At all costs AVOID photo-mechanically reproduced lithos by
unknown publishers. They are usually sold in "limited editions"
of 100+ or open editions. Make sure that the publisher has a
track record of producing high quality fine art prints. Always
ask who the publisher is before buying.
For more information of this topic:
The art of the Internet. One frame may not fit all
Please email me with any questions that you might have.
Ruth Robertson
Ruth Robertson Fine Art
www.ruthrobertson.com
ruthrobertsonart@aol.com
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