Thirty Years of Trading and I feel that…
Unsold!!
This oil painting remained unsold but….
Henry Scott (British 1911- 2005)
Facts, No fiction!! My Blog tomorrow sheds light to many issues related to unsold art and what happens after that event!!
Tuesday 17th March 2015
When is a bargain a bargain? When does it make sense to bid on an item?
I asked myself many a time the same question and I always come up with different answers all the time. Low price, best image, upcoming name, trendy and many more answers that do make sense but they are too many!
One that has always been a good measure of what I should chase to buy is buy LOW after a failed sale. Buying an unsold lot at auction or a bargain at a heavily reduced price is the best policy for the long run. That brings me to the issue of why invest in any Fine Art for trade?
Well, I find it more exciting, more profitable and at the same time, I enjoy and like what I invest in. I am not going to dwell for long on the subject but refer to the above painting to point out why I do believe that buying after a sale at much reduced prices is not a bad policy!
The image above is one that I like whoever the artist might be! It happens to be an oil painting of a good size and good quality by Henry Scott, a well respected marine artist. He is an upcoming artist who has been selling well on both sides of the Atlantic. The oil painting, badly framed and unimpressive at auction remained Unsold in a major London auction. In the country it was sold at a fraction of its real, factual value that comes through auction results.
Can anybody sell me a Henry Scott for £300.00 right now. I will buy half a dozen of them!
The oil painting remained unsold but that did not put me off and I bought it!
Unsold at Exhibitions!
In 2000 I had a major exhibition at the Hellenic Centre in London with about fifty oil painting by Leon Kalogeropoulos and Vasilis Zenetzis.
The Constantinople oil on canvas by Kalogeropoulos was a punchy oil painting of merit. At £4000 price tag, I expected it to sell easily. Always the optimist, it did not sell. Along with that many more of the artist and Zenetzis attracted few viewers. To cut the story short, that was disappointing, but it was not the end of the world. I kept the painting under wraps for a few years. In 2008 it was sold at Bonhams for over £8,000.
Unsold in an exhibition at 4,000, I would have let it go at 3,000 perhaps, it sold at auction for £8000.
Concluding, do not write off any work of art that remains unsold at auction for one reason or another. The stories of great investments are endless and I am going to come back to the same issue time and again here. However, when an important piece comes up for sale, please bid, as that might be your only chance to buy such a piece.
My next entry, Sunday, is about my French exploits of the week!! The chase is on and hope I am a happy hunter by the end of the week!!
Peter Constant
