{"id":11230,"date":"2024-06-11T13:56:38","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T13:56:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/?p=11230"},"modified":"2024-06-13T11:35:17","modified_gmt":"2024-06-13T11:35:17","slug":"11230-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/11230-2\/","title":{"rendered":"PRICE PANIC POLKA: How Auctions, Galleries, and Museums Dance to different Tunes"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Speaking as a trained USPAP-compliant appraiser, I find that most artists positioned in the mid-market have no idea how the art market really works. A recent flurry of foolishly irate posts on social media was launched by an artist who had been shocked to find a number of his\/her pieces were being offered at auction for what seemed to be liquidation value\u20145-10% of their original gallery sale price. The artist confused this with as a personal insult, and then embarked on a public whinge-fest that went on for days.\u00a0<\/strong>If you would be stunned to learn that artworks sold at auction for 10-20% of its original gallery price might actually be a home run, you\u2019re probably one of the clueless. Here\u2019s the thing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

No public record of gallery sales exists. What do exist are auction results, now searchable online. Before the Internet, dealers and collectors would have to pore through auction records housed in places like The Frick Library in New York. Today one can conduct research online databases, such as ArtArt.com, MutualArt.com, ArtPrice.com, etc.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Auction-houses base their price-spread estimates and opening bids on an artist\u2019s past performance\u00a0at auction<\/em>. Gallery price and private sales play no role in this practice. As far as auction-houses are concerned, what happens in galleries may as well be taking place in another galaxy. One has no direct bearing on the other.\u00a0<\/strong>If you\u2019re an artist who wants to protect your alleged price-point, don’t buy your old work. Instead leave an absentee bid at the opening bid\u2014just to make sure the piece is not “passed.” Bidders are inclined to regard \u201cbuy-ins\u201d as \u201cburned.\u201d Consignors might have to wait 3-5 years before bringing it back to auction.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The art market is in the midst of an epochal sea-change. If Baby Boomers and their parents regarded brown furniture, oriental carpets, and original artworks in gilded frames as trappings of cultured affluence, younger buyers today are more motivated to invest in experiences, rather than in possessions. By foregrounding its value as a fashionable investment, the blue-chip galleries and auction-houses have also \u00a0succeeded in downgrading the experiential value of art\u2014or at least replaced aesthetic delectation with a high-stakes dopamine rush. Nobody knows which will come first; the collapse of the present art market, or a return to 20th<\/sup>-century materialism. Or perhaps tomorrow’s wall art will be purchased with apps and displayed on LCD screens, or whatever succeeds them. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Galleries are disappearing; mostly because the cost of selling art has gone through the roof. Art fairs proliferate, with usurious exhibitor fees, along with a dizzying array of schemes and gimmicks, from popup events, NFTs, and online sales. How can young artists navigate this zany bourse of bling? How might a senior artist preserve some kind of legacy?<\/strong><\/p>\n

IMHO hoarding old work is just postponing a trip to the landfill. Do whatever you can to get it in play. Give it away if you can’t sell it. An artist recently approached me about gifting artworks to museums. He was stunned to learn that museums are even more selective than galleries, and they often require care-and-feeding cash subventions to accompany accepted gifts<\/strong><\/p>\n

Coming this fall will be a series of online conversations on topics related to artist legacies; an area where I possess some expertise. To receive notifications of talks, webinars, and workshops, become a\u00a0free\u00a0<\/em>subscriber to my\u00a0Substack\u00a0<\/a>column\u00a0<\/strong>True Places<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Transcripts of these programs and other written content will be available to\u00a0paid\u00a0<\/em>subscribers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thanks for reading<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014James L. McElhinney (c) 2024<\/strong><\/p>\n

SUBSCRIBE:<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

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Header image above: Le D\u00e9sesp\u00e9r\u00e9\u00a0<\/i>by Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) Collection Musee dOrsay, Paris.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                Speaking as a trained USPAP-compliant appraiser, I find that most artists positioned in the mid-market have no idea how the art market really works. A recent flurry of foolishly irate posts on social media was launched by an artist who had been shocked to find a number … Continue reading PRICE PANIC POLKA: How Auctions, Galleries, and Museums Dance to different Tunes<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"yoast_head":"\nPRICE PANIC POLKA: How Auctions, Galleries, and Museums Dance to different Tunes -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/11230-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PRICE PANIC POLKA: How Auctions, Galleries, and Museums Dance to different Tunes -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"                Speaking as a trained USPAP-compliant appraiser, I find that most artists positioned in the mid-market have no idea how the art market really works. 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