Collecting Art Online

The benefits and drawbacks of buying art online is a topic
that has been hotly debated among collectors, artists, and
gallery owners for a number of years now.

If you listen to gallery owners you might think that you are
taking your life in your hands to make an online purchase of
fine art, and yet most galleries today have a website to try to
capture the online market! Purchasing art online is fast
becoming the best and easiest way to buy art.

Traditionally collectors were tethered to their regional art
galleries and occasional trips to larger art markets to
purchase art for their collections. Today savvy art collectors
know that they can visit the studios of hundreds of thousands
of artists online as well as galleries worldwide from the comfort
of their own home or office. So many choices. So Little time.

So how does a collector sift through all of these online venues
to find just the right art to buy?

Before you buy a work of art from any artist do your
homework.
1. Is the price realistic for the career level of the artist whose
work you are interested in? If the artist is an emerging artist
his or her prices should be lower than an artist who is
established.

2. Does the artist produce art on a regular basis? If you are
building a collection you need to make sure the artist will
continue to produce or the work might not hold its value.

3. Is the artist gallery represented or was in the past? This
tells you that the artist's work is considered collectible by art
dealers and collectors already.

4. Does the artist have a museum history? Even better for
collecting, and not necessarily out of your price range. Many
artists will accept a "best offer" so don't be afraid to make one that is considerably less than the asking price!

5. Is the artist a listed artist? That means can you document
the artist? This is important! If you should ever need to de
accession a work from your collection you will get more money
for it if the artist is listed. You can search for an artist through
ArtPrice. This resource is widely used by auction houses
and galleries.

Armed with all this knowledge you are now ready to wade
through the thousands of Internet Art Sites. Many collectors
start with eBay. A word of caution here. Many artists
have never been represented by a commercial gallery and
yet are eager to provide you with a Certificate of Authenticity
for the "Gallery Price". The truth here is that there is no
marker for the "gallery price" unless the artist has been
gallery represented. On the other hand, many gallery represented artists do sell on eBay in an effort to expand their collector base.

There many wonderful artists selling on eBay, and as long as
you have done your research you will know how much to pay
or offer.

Right now is a good time to be acquiring "blue chip" original,
prints. These are prints produced using traditional printing
processes such as intaglio etchings, hand pulled lithographs,
hand pulled serigraphs, and monotypes. There are some
amazing opportunities available in the present market for
prints by Chagall, Dali, and Picasso to Fairfield Porter. eBay
is a great source for these prints.

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Orignal From: Collecting Art Online