Auction results are important for any serious art collector. The marketplace is often capricious, with different trends and artists coming in and out of favor at various times. Once one has an idea of his or her taste and favorite artists, getting market info is essential to getting a fair deal on artwork for sale. Bidding wars can get out of hand and for beginners, it can be confusing to know if the price is justified, if the auction house is overcharging commission or if other bidders are driving the prices out of control.

One can research discreetly, without the pressure of people hovering around them, chattering and auctioneers shouting. Before attending an auction, it’s good to know what one is looking for - and also what one can expect to pay as a fair price. Just because an artist is famous, doesn’t mean that all the works will be worth the same amount, so it’s good to know the variances in prices for different time periods of that artist’s life. Why pay over $478,000 for a Dali from 1957, when one can pay $5,000 for a piece that’s just as enjoyable, but was painted in 1983? Also, one can track market changes through the years and see what someone paid for a certain painting in 1985, 1995 and 2005. Often times, rare or unknown works can be viewed in auction results as well, making the dig an exciting one!

To look up its prices in an instant, there are several websites of which to be aware. The first, AskArt.com, is sometimes referred to as “the artists’ bluebook worldwide,” with a database of over 100,000 artists - with a focus on American artists from the 16th Century to present. However, as of January 2007, the database was expanded to encompass international artists as well! AskArt.com’s mission statement says, “It is the goal of AskART to facilitate the exchange of it and information pertaining to the subject.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 at 8:42 pm and is filed under Arts, Crafts & Hobbies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.