www.bellgiointernationalgallery.com

Buyer Be Aware
what kind of art are you purchasing.
Art has become a commodity ,we are now hearing about funds that are carrying art,wine ,diamonds or precious metals.
But has art always been a commodity ?
Investing in art, what does that mean?
There seems to be a lot of confusion with this term .I hear it everyday. I get asked about investing in art at least several times a week. I myself invest in art.
But this is a very tricky term . Why ? Because like any other commodity ,we look at supply and demand.
But the difference with art, " it is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it". This is usually based on a secondary market..
But not in all cases, see legitimate galleries and successful artists want to hold value . We want to see talented artists create value on their work .We like to see a nice increase in the art over the years to come. I try to encourage clients to buy originals. They will hold more value in the future, more than a giclee or print
See when we are buying art either through a gallery or an auction ,we have two types of buyers. We have a buyer that loves the piece for purely the emotional connection, can't wait to hang the piece in their home and they look at the art for long term .The icing on the cake is the artist does very well and the art increases in value. So we look at this as a long term purchase, years later they may want to sell ,liquidate or pass down. Then we have the buyer who feels they are buying art for an investment. They are seeking art for a secondary market value. They may want to flip the piece quickly or wait a few years . Some may store the art and never showcase .
Well we know that a lot of the old masters work can be worth millions. We all hear how much these masterpieces have been selling for, Picasso, Monet, Rembrandt, Michelangelo and now Pollock , Rothko and many more . But the last ten years maybe more we are seeing an incredible increase in modern day contemporary artists whose works are selling for large sums of money. Could this be the next big trend. Well we did see a bubble with art in the early 90's and like any bubble it deflates . We saw a decline . But we are starting to see this incline happen again, why?
Well my theory is the internet and I do not mean buying art on the internet .I mean we can learn about the artist. See what they are working on .We can reach out to them, communicate with them .We can track their prices .Who is buying their art and why. I believe now we are buying the art and the artists career. You can read up on an acclaimed artist .See where there career is going .Who they are doing commissions for, an example artist doing commissions for country, government, ambassador relations or corporations ,We can see who is acquiring this art.
So we do not have to wait for an artist to pass before we see an incline in value on the art and on the artist. We are seeing values of art go up to 200% within a 5 to 7 years
But Beware!
It is real easy to walk into some artist owned galleries that sell only their own work and be fooled by the smoke and mirrors .
One red flag is price jumping to quickly within months. This game is played a lot with edition art . for example giclee's and especially photography.
The exception would be bronze sculptures .The reason with bronze editions are still considered originals even though they a have an edition each one will look different from the mold process and the patina's ,The medium is one of the most expensive processes in the art world .The foundry work alone is a craft and quite an expense for the artist. So yes this work goes up quickly because of the cost of materials ( metals ) and the long process to create a piece.

We all can get fooled with hype at times .
Do not get sucked into buy now because tomorrow it will be twice the amount. Please if investments were that great .We would be hearing about these artist on CNBC or in the Wall Street Journal and the Rupert Murdoch' s of the world would be buying this art. Trust me this art deflates on the secondary market dramatically. I am not taking anything away from these artist or there talent .They could be taking great photo's or painting great art. But most of the time the artist is inflating prices to create an urgency into buying his or her art .If you feel like you are being sold a timeshare( art)in a gallery ,most likely you are. you are overpaying for your art.
These are my opinions. The best is to always do your research with this type of art.
Posted by Steven Rothman