Art resources & services

Fine Art Guides and Articles

  • Guide to Buying Fine Art
    To the uninitiated the prospect of buying fine art can be as daunting as being asked to paint the Sistine Chapel or construct St Paul’s Cathedral out of match sticks. A glimpse of the plush interiors of the major auction houses or trip to one of the forbidding galleries on Bond Street can give the visitor second thoughts about purchasing a piece of artwork. Alternatively the individual might be unsure about the value or authenticity of the painting or drawing they are proposing to buy, but press ahead with the transaction anyway on the principle that they may not know much about art, but they know what they like.
  • Guide to Selling Fine Art
    Over the past few years the practise of selling art online has become increasingly popular as sellers have found the online marketplace as competitive and profitable as the traditional bricks and mortar one, but without the commission that auction houses and galleries charge, which can be as high as 30% of the total sale price, on top of which there are additional charges for catalogue illustrations and insurance, with no guarantee of a final sale.
  • Fine Art as an Investment
    If you are at all serious about buying fine art as an investment, you start by educating yourself about the art market as much as you do about the art itself. A good way to combine these two disciplines is to go round as many art galleries as you are able and ask lots of questions about why the gallery chose to curate this artist’s work and how they set the prices for the art and whether they specialise in a particular segment of the market and how they chose their specialisation.
  • Fine Art on the Internet
    What is the relationship like between art and the internet? Well, to paraphrase the song Love and Marriage, art and the internet go together like a horse and carriage. This is because the internet provides two essential services without which the art world would be unable to function. Above all else, the internet has become the central location for buyers, sellers and art enthusiasts to learn more about the subject of their enthusiasm and business, whether it be eighteenth century portraiture or the latest art movement causing a storm in New York and London.

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