adversarial view of the whole situation. You will find most

galleries thanking you for giving them a chance to earn your

business and they would recommend you buy your piece

from the dealer offering the better deal, online or not.

All galleries are a business in the business of selling

you art. And you can be nice to them yet get the best deal

possible without being taken for a ride. Remember, the

longer art hangs on the walls the more of a burden it

becomes on the gallery, which has to pay the rent every

month. If a certain work has not moved in a long time, the

gallery will definitely have more incentive to sell it to

someone rather than send it back or have it continue to sit

on the wall. Keeping this in mind will help you maintain a

level head when negotiating for art.

The most important secret in the successful art

negotiation is having good manners. The second secret is to

approach the situation in a way which keeps you and the

gallery as friends. The third secret is to know most galleries

will customarily give you a five to ten percent

accommodation, (this is what galleries call a discount)

simply by you asking, `What accommodation can you make

for me?'  Some galleries may be go as far as a 15%

accommodation under the right set of circumstances. If

you're buying several pieces art or the art has been hanging

in the gallery for some months, you can definitely

attempt to push for a 15% discount.

Many clients feel reluctant to negotiate because they

feel like they're doing something they're not supposed to be

doing. The best way, I suggest, of approaching the subject

tactfully so it wont make you feel like you're on a used car

lot is to make yourself comfortable and your negotiating as

low key as possible.  This does not mean to cower in a

corner and whimper some incoherent babble about