“Someone needs money right away or inherited something he or she doesn’t like,” so that person—in possession of the sort of American or European painting exhibited and sold at Philadelphia’s Schwarz Gallery—comes in looking to sell, said gallerist Robert Schwarz. Most will consign the artwork, awaiting a sale that takes six to twelve months on average (and sometimes longer) to complete, but a few will look for the gallery to purchase the artwork outright. In such instances, Schwarz is generally asked two questions: “‘What price do you think you can sell it for?’ and ‘What would you buy it for?’”
The two figures are usually quite different. If Schwarz believes that he can sell a painting for $100,000, he won’t pay that amount for it but something closer to a wholesale price—usually between 50 and 75 percent of the potential sale. So, why would anyone consider selling to a dealer? There are several reasons.
Money in hand can be preferable to the crapshoot of consigning artworks. With no financial stake in a painting or sculpture, a gallery may or may not make much effort to sell the artwork just to earn the average commission. Auction houses, which only take items on consignment, hold public sales, but it’s not uncommon for there to be no buyers for specific pieces; between 20 and 30 percent of all lots at major auctions do not sell, and this failure tends to rub off onto the artwork itself, making it less likely to sell........