NOTICE THE DIFFERENCE IN PRICES BETWEEN SIMILAR WORKS OF AN ARTIST?
A TRIO OF PAINTINGS BY ZENETZIS PAINTED IN 2004
In late 1988 I decided that in the near future I would not be able to buy good pieces of art at auction unless I entered bidding wars with art investors and dealers like myself. It was obvious that the same people were chasing the same kind of paintings because it was obvious which artists were popular, desirable and returning good money when investing in them.
Thus, I turned to investing in up and coming artists, in artists whose art was promising but very affordable at the time their work came to my attention. That was the case with Vasilis Zenetzis in 1988.
I spotted his work in a small local gallery in Athens where his paintings stood out as exceptional Impressionist paintings. I never hesitated to buy that work and immediately I looked to meet the artist whom I met soon after. I liked the man, I liked what I heard him saying and at the end of 1988 I commissioned him to paint for me some thirty oil paintings.
The prices agreed were in my view rather good and allowing me some space to make some money from my investment. Selling his art, investing in more of his art too, continued until Zenetzis’ work sold for the first time at Sothebys London in 1998. It was a good beginning at auction that continued until the Greek market collapsed together with the Greek economy.
Works of art are not tomatoes nor potatoes that go off. Art finds it path slowly and gradually and the eye of the investor is always a barometer in the eye of the new investors and buyers of art. The success in selling Zenetzis work at auctions and exhibitions led to another artist I discovered in Athens just about when Zenetzis started selling at the major auctions of London.
Leon Kalogeropoulos will be the subject of my next chapter on why buying at studios and directly from artists benefits the art community and the public!!!
Peter Constant, BA, MA
