A few years ago, a seller walked into New York City art dealer Jill Newhouse’s gallery with an 18th-century Italian painting “that he had inherited and just didn’t want. He was looking for a quick sale.” She obliged, taking the painting off his hands for what she described as a modest price and quickly reselling it to a London gallery that more often deals in works of that type. Newhouse didn’t make a huge profit on the deal, but the young man got some money and so did she. Win-win.
Thank you for signing up!
By clicking submit, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge we may use your information to send you emails, product samples, and promotions on this website and other properties. You can opt out anytime.
Those looking to sell artworks usually consign pieces to an art gallery or auction house, and staff at both institutions are aware that the higher the final price, the more money they will earn as a commission, which tends to be 30 percent of the sale price. However, as frequent consignors of art to galleries and auctioneers are well aware, it can take quite a while for an object to sell—“sometimes, the market may be sleepier for a certain artist or type of work,” Newhouse told Observer—and the piece just might not sell at all. The percentage of objects that go unsold (“bought-in,” in auction house parlance) is between 20 and 30 percent, and sometimes more. If you need money in a hurry, that’s not good news.
SEE ALSO: Fitzhugh Karol and the Material Vernacular
Plus, what you consigned to a dealer may sit in........