FAB Market Insights
Stay informed with our art news and market insights.
Collecting + Investing
FEBRUARY *1 February: Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me.
Collecting + Investing, Auctions + Art Fairs, Market Reports
After 40 years working in the art market, I have met many highly successful people who, despite their life and work experience, were too intimidated when walking into an art gallery or auction house to discuss what they saw. On the other hand, there are even more examples of successful business people who aren’t apprehensive at all, and believe they can transfer their winning mentality to buying art. And there are other collectors or would-be collectors who simply don’t have the time or expertise to buy wisely.
Market Reports, Collecting + Investing, Auctions + Art Fairs
With much overdue institutional attention on important female artists, it's easy to think that the playing field is starting to become equal - but how far do we have to go to approach gender equality, and how is it measured and valued in the art world? What are the numbers telling us?
Market Reports, Collecting + Investing, Auctions + Art Fairs
Building an art collection should be an extremely satisfying and rewarding experience. But whether you’re looking to acquire art for decorative or investment purposes — for most new collectors it is usually a combination — it can be difficult to know where and how to start.
Market Reports, Collecting + Investing
After a 10-day trip to South Korea in late August, checking out the art market and visiting Frieze Seoul, our directors are now back in New York geared up for a very busy season of art fairs, exhibitions and auctions. This week marked the start of the fall auction season in New York, with Contemporary sales at Phillips, Christie's, and Sotheby's.
Market Reports, Collecting + Investing, Auctions + Art Fairs
After two years of unprecedented change in the art market, with some sectors seeing enormous gains, all bets are off when it comes to making predictions about trends for this year. But as we embark on another year of activity at Fine Art Brokers, we attempt mission impossible.
Collecting + Investing
Building an art collection can be an extremely satisfying and rewarding experience. But it can also be a daunting one. Whether you’re looking to acquire art for decorative or investment purposes — for most new collectors it is usually a combination — it can be difficult to know where to start.
Collecting + Investing, Market Reports
Buying art online is becoming increasingly popular, and not just because of Covid-related travel restrictions. In 2020 aggregate online sales for auctions reached a record high of $12.4 billion, while the share of online sales for dealers rose from 13% in 2019 to 39% in 2020
Collecting + Investing, Market Reports
With the world in and out of lockdown over the past 18 months, it’s been a turbulent time for the art market. Sales have inevitably dropped, but both sellers and buyers have adapted to the enforced reality that most artworks have been offered online, with the result that sales have held up well. In 2020, during the worst period of the pandemic, global sales of art and antiques still reached over an estimated $50 billion — down just 22% on 2019 and 27% since 2018 — notes Dr. Clare McAndrew in the industry leading 2021 Art Basel UBS report. Sales of fine art at auction dropped by around 30% from 2019, but Sotheby’s and Christie’s both compensated by reporting at least a 50% increase in private sales.
Collecting + Investing
At Fine Art Brokers we are often asked if an artwork that someone has purchased or inherited has monetary value. Here we give a rough guide to help you understand value. Many of the comments might appear to dismiss the artistic nature of a work of art, something that has been created from the artist’s skill and imagination. We do not wish to denigrate these aspects in any way, as an artist’s creation is usually a beautiful and wonderful thing – we are simply describing market factors.
Collecting + Investing
With so many factors to consider for investing in fine art, it is important to prepare and educate yourself when collecting artwork. In this article, Fine Art Brokers breaks down the steps to consider when it comes to investing in art. Check out our complete guide here.
Collecting + Investing
A good advisor will be able to help a collector navigate the (often rapidly) shifting sands with regard to art sales tax and import duty taxes on art and associated duties and levies on art acquisitions. While it may be unfair to expect an advisor or broker to understand the applicable tax rates in every scenario, advice can be given to help a collector avoid expensive errors or unforeseen costs. Here we give general information to help you know which issues are important to resolve about sales and import taxes before you purchase or move a work of art.
Collecting + Investing
For those taking their first steps in collecting, as well as for those experienced in buying and selling art, there are many advantages to using an art advisor. In this article, we discuss how a good advisor can help a new collector gain confidence and see through the opaque facets of the art world, especially the various buying opportunities and what drives an artist’s value. We also outline how an advisor’s expertise and inside knowledge allows clients access to art not generally available, and guidance in choosing the right artworks to purchase. Buyers and sellers of art at all levels can benefit from an advisor’s market knowledge and due diligence. And we finally detail how good advice need not be expensive; in fact, we contend that advisors often save their clients’ money.
Auctions + Art Fairs, Collecting + Investing
If it is your first time viewing or participating in an art auction, you’ll need a number of pointers about how to understand the many aspects involved, including the terminology used, how to bid, and the charges. Auctions can be both exciting and intimidating for the uninitiated, with many ‘experts’ and apparently well-heeled clients with their advisors making you feel the art world is a mysterious place. But don’t let this scare you, as with the right guidance and some preparation you can find the confidence to make informed decisions about your bidding. Auctions have an enormous variety of art to offer, online and in real life, and getting involved can be educational, rewarding, and sometimes even fun, once you have the experience and confidence. Doing your research, knowing what questions to ask, having a bidding strategy, understanding the players, and considering using a consultant are what you’ll need to prepare before bidding at auction.
Auctions + Art Fairs, Collecting + Investing, FAB Events
Fine Art Brokers is pleased to offer complimentary replay access to our latest webinar 'How to Buy Art Online with Confidence'. Join our CEO, Ray Waterhouse, for an in-depth conversation with Courtney Kremers (Sotheby's), Susanne Siano (Modern Art Conservation), and Liz Luna (Artsy) on online buying guidelines.
Auctions + Art Fairs, Collecting + Investing, Market Reports, FAB Events
Fine Art Brokers is pleased to offer complimentary access to the replay of our June webinar, Planning Strategies for Art & Collectibles: Managing the Disposition of an Art Collection. We hope you will enjoy this discussion with valuable insights on the art market during Covid-19 and many aspects of Art Advisory, Art Law, and Auction practice. For On Demand viewing please click here.
Collecting + Investing, Market Reports
Jean-Paul Riopelle developed his mature style in the early 1950s: tessellated canvases that unfold like constellations, their heavy impasto applied with a palette knife directly from the tube of paint. Living in Paris and exhibiting worldwide, including at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and with Pierre Matisse Gallery from 1953–89 – which was owned by the son of Henri Matisse and promoted the European avant-garde in the US – Riopelle became the most internationally acclaimed Canadian artist of his generation. This holds still more true today, with prices for the artist’s work reaching unprecedented heights.
Auctions + Art Fairs, Collecting + Investing
2019 saw a major retrospective of the Surrealist painter Dorothea Tanning at Tate Modern. Tanning’s retrospective is part of an upswing of interest in female Surrealists in popular media, museum exhibitions and the art market. Now is a good time to buy the works of female Surrealists, whose work has still not found an upper limit.
Collecting + Investing, Market Reports
There have never been more opportunities to buy fine art and be well informed, given the extraordinary range of art fairs, auctions, dealers and galleries - all accessible in person and online, as well as the increasingly informative online art platforms. What to choose is the problem.
Collecting + Investing, FAB Events
Ray Waterhouse, Chairman of Fine Art Brokers, and Judd Tully, seasoned writer on the art market and Editor-at-Large for Art + Auction magazine, present a private talk on starting and building an art collection, hosted at a magnificent penthouse in downtown New York.
FAB Events, Collecting + Investing
Fine Art Brokers is pleased to be represented at the 51st Annual Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning. Considered the largest national conference of its kind, the annual event will take place in Orlando from January 9-13th, 2017.
Auctions + Art Fairs, Collecting + Investing
The first part of an occasional guide, both informative and irreverent, to the art world’s usage and abusage of the English language, originally written by us in 1991 but still surprisingly relevant.