Not necessarily. Gallery prices are retail. As a private art owner, you can’t expect to sell at the same prices galleries sell for. For one thing, galleries provide all kinds of services and amenities that private sellers can’t. For another, a gallery might sell a significant percentage of their art at prices lower than what it’s marked. If at any point you decide to sell your art, no matter whether you sell through a gallery, an auction house or a secondary market website, you’ll have to pay a commission on the sale.

For another, a gallery might sell a significant percentage of their art at prices lower than what it’s marked. If at any point you decide to sell your art, no matter whether you sell through a gallery, an auction house or a secondary market website, you’ll have to pay a commission on the sale.

In general, avoid temperature and humidity extremes, and keep all art out of direct sunlight. As for specifics, ask the gallery or artist selling the art for any additional instructions on how to care for and maintain it. Lightly clean or dust art with nothing more than a feather or microfiber duster or soft dry cloth. Never clean art with solvents or cleaning agents or attempt to fix or repair damage on your own. If the art gets damaged or problems develop, contact professional fine art conservators to restore it for you.

Check with your insurance company on this. Procedures for insuring art vary from company to company. We also provide this service. More valuable works of art should generally be itemized individually. Appraisals on more expensive art are often required before certain companies will insure them. Make sure your insurance company has experience and knowledge about insuring art, and get an idea of their claims process.

Once again, you should buy what you like. If you like Picasso’s “Blue Period” paintings, and have the money to afford them when they come on the market, then by all means go for it! But it’s not very rewarding buying art by famous artist at the expense of giving up the fun of “discovering” a new artist. Also, history consistently proves that “fame” often wanes and causes prices to come crashing down or soar up. One generation’s “in” artist is usually not the next generation’s idea of what’s hot.

The easiest way is to become an expert in whatever you collect, but in fine arts, generally it is best (and easier) to buy artwork from accredited, reputable dealers. Artistree/The Artistree Collective LLC provides the authenticity of all the art that we sell. We also issue a written Certificate of Authenticity so that you have written evidence of our guarantee. All guarantees are based on our present knowledge and scholarly opinion. Because we generally deal with living artists, we can usually guarantee the Provenances directly from the artist to the gallery.

A provenance is the life history of the piece of artwork, and normally starts with the artist selling it, or giving it as a gift, or passing through a dealer, etc. Most of our pieces have a Provenance that comes directly from the artist to the gallery, since we are often their first entry point. When we re-sell a piece of artwork, the provenance often includes the record of that piece, exhibitions, reviews it has had, etc.

Pricing artwork is a difficult science at best. Many factors influence the price of a piece of art, but the key factor is of course demand. The more collectors want work by an artist, the more they are willing to pay. Supply is also a strong factor. Usually emerging artists’ prices are a fraction of what established well-known artists can obtain. Auction prices can vary wildly from gallery prices, depending on the bidding. Historically, oils have been more expensive than watercolours and watercolours more than drawings, and so on. However, a Picasso drawing will still beat a major work by an emerging or even an established run-of-the-mill artist anytime. However, other than contemporary published editions of reproductions (usually called “prints” unfortunately) and limited edition photography, there is no “list price” for true prints and certainly none for paintings, drawings, and sculpture. We usually set a price on the basis of what think is fair market value, plus a selling record, accounting for size and media, and then discuss it with the artist.

If you are looking to buy art as a financial investment, then you should try buying stocks instead. Most reputable dealers in fine art are at least aware of the “potential” investment factor of a work of art, but there’s no secret formula or “insider knowledge” as to what future prices for a piece of art will be. There are of course, works of art that are always “on the rise,” such as works by the masters or very well-established (often dead) artists, but when buying work by contemporary, living artists, the key rule should still be to buy what you like, and avoid anyone that suggests that you should buy it as an “investment.”

Print is the most abused term used in the world of art. A true print is something that the artist has created by hand, such as an etching, or a woodcut or a linocut. The point is that the creation process involves the artist in control of what gets created. Everything else is a reproduction. An Iris print, gyclee print, etc. are just digital reproductions of an artist’s original work. There’s nothing wrong with reproductions, if that is what you want to buy, as long as you know the true difference between reproductions and prints.

Collecting photographs as a fine art genre is a 20th century phenomenon. Photography is perhaps one of the most affordable and rewarding paths for beginner collectors. At the Artistree Gallery, we only sell the work of photographers who take, develop and print their own work. All of the photographs that we sell are signed by the photographers.

If the artist has our gallery representation, We will be able to provide you with the full biographic information on the artist, including CV, exhibition history and selected press available of the artist.

Ideally the work you’ve already seen that has grabbed your attention is the one to go for. If the work has already been sold, or you would like a different dimension, you can enquire about other available works realised by the artist from a similar time period or from a broader body of work. This can be a great way of understanding how the artist works and could even lead you to an unexpected discovery.

The value of the work can change significantly depending on whether it is a unique piece or an edition. Photography and sculpture are most commonly available as editions. An edition can be a great way to buy a work by an artist whose price point might otherwise be beyond your reach.

Be prepared to factor in costs beyond just the purchase price. Shipping, handling and taxes are usually outside of the cost of the work itself. You can always contact us for more information.

Considerations don’t end with the price ‘Will the work need framing? Insurance? Installation?’ Depending on the complexity of the work’s installation requirements, maybe the artist will need to install the work on site or the gallery could help to recommend an installer. In the end, the role of the collector is to protect and assure longevity to an artwork, therefore he or she must be ready to take responsibility of what each artwork carries with it.

A certificate of authenticity is standard practice for authenticating your art work. This will always come with your purchase which the gallery provides based on the best of it’s knowledge. Indeed for more conceptual pieces the authentication certifies the piece itself. If there comes a time where you want to sell the work on, a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist or gallerist is essential.

If you’ve bought a contemporary work by a living artist, you will doubtless want to follow their career. Its recommends asking your gallery what’s coming up for the artist, such as future shows with the gallery or museum exhibitions. We are entrusted with our artists’ careers and finding the right works for the right collector means building a long term relationship not just between the collector and the gallery, but, most importantly, between the collector and the artist.’

We offer diverse payment flexibility: We accept cash, checks, wire, credit card.