Invest in fine art, where to buy, part 3
If you have read the introduction to the post, you understand that I am not eager to advise you to buy in art galleries. But the truth is that all the big masters were sold once through galleries.
You have several types of galleries:
1- the gallery where usually you fear to enter because some snobbish face looks at the ignorant intruder you are. Well, it is exaggerated, of course; many famous galleries have a friendly and amicable approach to a possible buyer. These are galleries where you will buy a Picasso or a Warhol. No need to say you need very, very deep pockets. If you buy a painting in those galleries ( this is replacement value ), you will have to wait at least a decade to see your art obtaining the fair market value.
See the difference between fair market value and replacement value
2- the gallery that sells upcoming artists.
There are two sorts of galleries selling upcoming artists.
You have, by example, the Jack Rutberg Gallery in Los Angeles. Jack Rutberg is following a lot of young artists, and has an eye to see what is good and will be successful. Those galleries are rare — Castelli Gallery, Gallery Carre Louis Stern gallery, etc.
The second type of gallery is the gallery where you can find in so many commercial plazas. I can't qualify what they sell without being vulgar; that's why I will abstain from making comments. But usually, they sell artists who copy famous artists or try to copy masters. Unfortunately, these galleries are multiplying faster than rabbits.
3- the estate gallery or the antique dealer who is buying estates. These galleries always need to be visited because even in this 21st. Century where information is available on your phone, there are still people who don't take the time to verify what they sell. Don't think that the antique dealer doesn't check what he sells; he usually knows what he sells.
The trick is to visit this gallery when the dealer arrives with new merchandise.
The artwork you should look for is the art the dealer did not have the time to investigate because it just arrived in his shop.
