How To Tell An Artists' True Value

Use the Internet to find a list of galleries carrying the

artist you're interested in. A quick typing of the artist name

into a search engine will usually point out at least 5 or 10

galleries carrying the artist. Be sure you have the correct

spelling or you may wind up with a different person.

Another point about online artist searches is, the sponsor

links coming up first tend to be large, well established

galleries which will probably quote you prices close to the

retail price asked by the artist's retail price list. As you start

to go down the list you will find other galleries who are more

open to some negotiation on these pieces.

The most important thing you can do is discover for

yourself as much as possible about the artist whose work

you fall in love with. This is important for a few reasons.

One, it gives you insight into the person who created the

artwork you found yourself falling in love with. Two, it gives

you a feeling for how mature in their work the artist has

become. Three, you will learn how often they exhibit works

and where these exhibitions take place. In case you ever

want to meet this artist contact your gallery or other

gallery carrying their work, and ask where the next

exhibition is taking place. The fourth and most

important for looking into an artist is, learning about their

reputation.

It's an artist's reputation which really sets the price

you're going to pay for the artwork. The reputation of an

artist is the one thing absolutely guaranteed to affect

the price of their artwork. Therefore, the more you find

out about an artist and his or her reputation, the better you

will understand if the price a gallery is asking is a fair market

value, or if it's more an indication of how much rent they