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Art Auctions

Karen Francis

Blog #87 of 185

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September 23rd, 2015 - 05:46 PM

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Art Auctions

I haven't had much experience auctioning art. Early on in my painting career I tried one, and was very disappointed in the sale price of the work. In some ways, I felt like the beautiful painting was stolen from me because of the low price it achieved. But I was also grateful the painting had sold at all.
Some auctions are "brick and mortar" like some art galleries, having a physical street location where people come to buy. Others exist only in cyberspace online. And some in both. This website http://www.auctionzip.com contains many auctions, some in the future and others in progress. I watched one today which included a live video stream as the auction progressed in France. Each auction contains various products, some only Art and others Furniture, or other collectibles. I think it is preferable for artists to be able to set a minimum. There is also a commission taken from any proceeds by the auction house, but it is usually lower than a gallery commission. I have found that some large, famous auction houses will not auction the art of living artists, unless it is offered by a collector. Others, will accept consignments of anything, from anyone. The results at an auction depend on the interest level of the crowd in the product being sold, as well as the number of people present, when the item comes up for bid, whether there is a minimum attached, etc. I guess it would be best to have a large following and let your friends and collectors know in advance when you have work in an auction. Then hope that the auction house is advertising the event. http://fineart.ha.com/ is another online auction. FYI, after selling my art for 30 years, I've found that the small exhibition events which I promoted and held in my home, sometimes including a few other select artists, resulted in more sales than the internet, which I've had my art on for at least seventeen years now. (See http://www.artpro.com) It grows easier every day to buy and sell online,with websites like Fine Art America, and the confidence level of those who use the internet in its security for purchase transactions increases all the time, but the novelty factor has decreased some. We artists are very fortunate to be living in this amazing time where people all over the world have the possibility of stumbling across our images online. That's something poor Van Gogh did not have in his day.

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