Buying Art Prints II - Where to Buy?

Real World Auctions

Auctions have a reputation of being a source for good bargains, of providing excellent descriptions and guaranteeing the authenticity of an art print. This is only half-true. There are many auction houses where the owners and the staff have the necessary knowledge to assess the consigned art prints and prepare the catalogs with excellent descriptions. These are usually the smaller auction houses specializing on certain categories with only a few auctions per year.

Then there are the "all art objects" auction houses - usually with more frequent auctions. Their staff often does not and simply cannot have the necessary expertise for all categories. So often the catalog descriptions are either taken as specified by the consignor or they are of the kind "Landscape with a horse and the moon". Also the reserve prices can be pretty "off" - in both directions.

Most people think that auction houses get their consignments exclusively from private persons. Wrong - a large part is consigned by dealers. For art dealers an auction house is an opportunity to get rid of junk or of art prints that have been too long in the dealer's stock.

Galleries and Dealers

Buying from an established dealer, who is in the market for some time and belongs to a trade or antique association, reduces the risk of buying a fake print. But it is no bullet-proof protection - neither against paying too much nor against acquiring an object with a doubtful authenticity.

There are basically two species of art dealers: those who have a gallery and those who do not. The latter save the overheads of a monthly gallery rent and can offer for more aggressive prices.

Art Fairs

Art and antiquity fairs have the advantage of concentrating many art dealers on one place at the same time. Fairs are attended by gallery owners and dealers without a permanent showroom. For dealers without a gallery, attending fairs is often their main income source.

Small fairs are a better source for making a good bargain than high-end fancy fairs - unless you want to buy an art object in the upper class region. The fees that a dealer has to pay for participating in a classy fair can easily reach US$10,000 and more for one week.

Buying Art on the Internet

The Internet has made art print sales more accessible for everyone. There are numerous galleries, malls, auctions, classifieds and artist sites. By its very nature, the Internet should make the art print market more transparent and reduce the influence of middlemen.

Online auctions have become very popular. There are two rather different art auction forms. Places like Ebay, where the web site owner does only provide a technical platform on which buyer and seller can come together. Payment, shipping, insurance and authenticity of an art print - it is all a matter to be handled directly by the buyer and seller. The web site provider does not take any guarantees or they are very limited.

Then there are the Internet auctions where the auctioneer inspects the real thing, makes descriptions, handles payment and shipping and offers in most cases a return policy. The consignments of these auction sites usually come from dealers.

Numerous art galleries offer online art prints on the Internet for sale. Many galleries display the art prints without prices - hoping to get more easily into an e-mail contact with their visitors.

No matter whether you buy from a gallery or auction site or directly from an artist's site, you should should check the following points:

Does the seller have a return policy?
Is the company name/owner shown with complete address?
Who takes the risk of transportation damage or loss? Is transportation insurance included?
Are all costs - namely for shipping - included?
How good are the images of the art print? Are margins shown with the image? How good is the description? Is condition mentioned?
Does the site offer secure transactions? In practice it means that your sensitive data is encrypted while sent over the Internet. The standard technology is called SSL (secure socket layer).
You should prefer payment by credit card to other forms of payment. It is safer because you can protest the payment and reclaim it via your credit card company if you should for instance not receive your art print.

Ebay and Similar Internet Auctions

Ebay has an established community of art collectors and professional dealers with good knowledge. They watch the ongoing auctions closely and take part both as buyers and sellers. So do not expect to fetch an original Utamaro print for a few bucks. Dealers - also renowned dealers with good names - use Ebay to attract traffic to their web sites by placing interesting offers on Ebay. On the other hand, the risk of buying a fake art print in an auction of Ebay type should not be neglected.

Buying Directly from Contemporary Artists

If you know exactly what you want, it can be a way to avoid paying a premium for a mediator and getting a refreshing experience with an artist. Many artists can now be contacted directly on the Internet either by means of their own homepages or on web sites that host artist communities.

Back to Buying Art Prints part I.
Continue with Buying Art Prints part III.

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