A Montreal expert's new guide teaches nervous beginners how to invest in art
You may have seen this month's Vanity Fair with a soaking wet Brad Pitt on the cover, in boxer shorts. If the Pitt portrait appeals to you, the photographer who took it will do yours for $150,000. That's a bargain compared to what a "successful businessman" can spend these days for a picture to hang over the fireplace, says Tobias Meyer, the head of contemporary art at Sotheby's in New York. "It can cost as much as the whole apartment." He's referring to a place on Park Avenue. "Now, a great apartment in New York is $30 million, and a great Rothko is $30 million. The prices are not the prices," he says, "they're relationships to individual worth." But what if the price relationship to your individual worth amounts to a Van Gogh poster?
Lisa Hunter hopes that her new book, The Intrepid Art Collector: The Beginner's Guide to Finding, Buying and Appreciating Art on a Budget, will help the average Joe at least get a baby toe in the market. Hunter, who lives in Montreal, is an arts journalist and former editor at the American Museum of Natural History. "First of all," she said in a recent interview, "there's nothing embarrassing about having a poster hanging in your living room. I'm all for people having posters before they start to buy. They're a great way to know what you're going to want to live with."
For someone who loves van Gogh and wants more than a mass-produced poster, Hunter suggests buying authentic Japanese prints, an art form that profoundly affected the Dutch artist's style. "Japanese prints were originally intended as inexpensive decoration for the common people," writes Hunter. "That's why an impecunious artist like Van Gogh could afford them. Today, Japanese prints are highly collectible and still affordable." Hunter notes that an authentic Japanese print can be purchased for as little as $50.
Whether you're buying prints, an Oriental rug or contemporary art, Hunter emphasizes the importance of buying from a dealer who will, wherever possible, provide proper documentation of the work's provenance, and perhaps most importantly, refund your money if you discover you've been sold a fake. Get everything in writing, she advises. "Don't assume that forgeries happen only in the multi-million-dollar part of the art world. Fakes are common in the lower price range because collectors are more likely to be novices."
In the case of Inuit sculpture, one quick way to spot a knock-off is if the seller is displaying identical figurines. Real Inuit art is one of a kind. Also, the reproductions are often made from moulded synthetic. The genuine article is carved from stone and feels cool to the touch. Hunter's book also covers Native American art. "A Navajo blanket holds the record for the most expensive treasure ever uncovered on Antiques Roadshow, receiving an estimated half-million dollars. Be careful, though," she writes. "Many of the Navajo rugs you see for sale are fakes made in Mexico. A typical Navajo rug doesn't have any fringes. The majority of Mexican fakes [do]."
If you're buying an Oriental rug, Hunter advises making sure it's finely knotted. If it looks blurry, it's not knotted finely enough. And if the wool feels scratchy and brittle, it isn't good quality. Tastes change, she says, and right now long thin "runners" made for hallways are often bargains; "contemporary floor plans have fewer long hallways, so demand has dropped." If you decide to shop for a runner, beware of the ubiquitous "sale" signs offering 60 to 80 per cent off. "You can recognize a bad dealer when you hear a hard sell about how the rug is worth many times the sale price. If you start to hear the rug is 'museum-quality,' the question after that should be, 'Where's the exit?' "
If you're the type of person who has a "taste for speculation," and if the idea of discovering the Next Great Thing in contemporary art excites you, Hunter has this advice:
Buy young. Savvy collectors haunt the top art schools.
Focus on artists who live in New York or another major capital, she says. That's where the top dealers live.
Collect "difficult" art. If the work is gory or disturbing, most collectors won't want it hanging over their couches, no matter how many curators gush about its brilliance.
Take a second look at "has-beens" -- lists of artists who were included in career-making exhibitions like the Whitney Biennial or the P.S. 1 art show. Google them. See what they're up to. You might find something amazing.
By Julia McKinnell, Maclean's
Lisa Hunter hopes that her new book, The Intrepid Art Collector: The Beginner's Guide to Finding, Buying and Appreciating Art on a Budget, will help the average Joe at least get a baby toe in the market. Hunter, who lives in Montreal, is an arts journalist and former editor at the American Museum of Natural History. "First of all," she said in a recent interview, "there's nothing embarrassing about having a poster hanging in your living room. I'm all for people having posters before they start to buy. They're a great way to know what you're going to want to live with."
For someone who loves van Gogh and wants more than a mass-produced poster, Hunter suggests buying authentic Japanese prints, an art form that profoundly affected the Dutch artist's style. "Japanese prints were originally intended as inexpensive decoration for the common people," writes Hunter. "That's why an impecunious artist like Van Gogh could afford them. Today, Japanese prints are highly collectible and still affordable." Hunter notes that an authentic Japanese print can be purchased for as little as $50.
Whether you're buying prints, an Oriental rug or contemporary art, Hunter emphasizes the importance of buying from a dealer who will, wherever possible, provide proper documentation of the work's provenance, and perhaps most importantly, refund your money if you discover you've been sold a fake. Get everything in writing, she advises. "Don't assume that forgeries happen only in the multi-million-dollar part of the art world. Fakes are common in the lower price range because collectors are more likely to be novices."
In the case of Inuit sculpture, one quick way to spot a knock-off is if the seller is displaying identical figurines. Real Inuit art is one of a kind. Also, the reproductions are often made from moulded synthetic. The genuine article is carved from stone and feels cool to the touch. Hunter's book also covers Native American art. "A Navajo blanket holds the record for the most expensive treasure ever uncovered on Antiques Roadshow, receiving an estimated half-million dollars. Be careful, though," she writes. "Many of the Navajo rugs you see for sale are fakes made in Mexico. A typical Navajo rug doesn't have any fringes. The majority of Mexican fakes [do]."
If you're buying an Oriental rug, Hunter advises making sure it's finely knotted. If it looks blurry, it's not knotted finely enough. And if the wool feels scratchy and brittle, it isn't good quality. Tastes change, she says, and right now long thin "runners" made for hallways are often bargains; "contemporary floor plans have fewer long hallways, so demand has dropped." If you decide to shop for a runner, beware of the ubiquitous "sale" signs offering 60 to 80 per cent off. "You can recognize a bad dealer when you hear a hard sell about how the rug is worth many times the sale price. If you start to hear the rug is 'museum-quality,' the question after that should be, 'Where's the exit?' "
If you're the type of person who has a "taste for speculation," and if the idea of discovering the Next Great Thing in contemporary art excites you, Hunter has this advice:
Buy young. Savvy collectors haunt the top art schools.
Focus on artists who live in New York or another major capital, she says. That's where the top dealers live.
Collect "difficult" art. If the work is gory or disturbing, most collectors won't want it hanging over their couches, no matter how many curators gush about its brilliance.
Take a second look at "has-beens" -- lists of artists who were included in career-making exhibitions like the Whitney Biennial or the P.S. 1 art show. Google them. See what they're up to. You might find something amazing.
By Julia McKinnell, Maclean's
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