I Own a Painting That My Children Don't Want

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Q: I own a painting that my children don't want, so I've decided to sell it. I bought it about 20 years ago. I wrote to the gallery that exclusively represents the artist and had them appraise it. According to them, it's worth quite a bit now. I know I can't sell it for that much, but can you tell me how and where I can get a good price? The gallery says that they don't get involved with resales. I've enclosed a copy of their appraisal.

A: Don't expect to get anywhere near the appraised value for your art. First of all, the appraisal is from the gallery that represents the artist, not an independent appraiser. Their best interest is to appraise as high as possible because big numbers make them look good. While these numbers work for them, they don't for you. That gallery is the only place where the artist's work can sell for that much.

As with any monopoly, they exclusively represent the artist and they control the prices. They decide what the art sells for and appraise it at whatever those current retail prices happen to be. The artist's market is created and manipulated entirely in-house. As long as they're in control, they don't concern themselves with resales like yours that take place on the outside.

This dovetails directly into your next problem. The gallery does not handle resales. They apparently have all the art they need which means that the market for the artist is not strong enough to warrant their making outright buys or seeking consignments from the outside. In other words, you're in trouble.

The little bit of good news is that outside resales do take place, but at prices far less than what the gallery retails the art for. A neutral outside appraiser would have advised you of this. Expect to sell your art for only about 20% of the value that the gallery gave you.

Point of information: When considering any art purchase, assuming you're concerned about spending your money wisely, find out about resale procedures. Does a secondary market exist for the artist and, if so, where is it and how much does the art resell for? Determine whether the gallery gets all their art directly from the artist, from people controlling the artist's estate, or from private parties as well. Be aware that some galleries dance around on this issue and say whatever is necessary in order to sell you art.

If you're at all unsure of the answers to these questions, check to see how other galleries perceive the artist's market and consult an independent appraiser or two. You might even go home, call the gallery in question, tell them you have a piece of the artist's art that you'd like to resell, and ask what you should do and whether they'll handle it for you. A sad fact of the art business is that sometimes (not often) this tact is necessary in order to get the truth.

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