FAQ
Before buying
Statistically speaking, in an average year, over 10,000 Old Master paintings priced between $10,000 – 20,000,000 are offered at public auction worldwide – this is taking into account smaller regional auction houses such as Drouot, Lempertz, Artcurial, Tajan, Dorotheum, Koller, Bonhams as well as international powerhouses Sotheby’s and Christie’s. Some works are unattributed or by minor painters, but reliably there are paintings and drawings by the so-called top tier Old Master painters (e.g. Titian, Rubens, Pontormo, Rembrandt, Canaletto, Turner and Delacroix, to name but a few) available. In 2019, paintings by Cimabue and Caravaggio surfaced out of the blue in France.
Meanwhile, a large volume of works are sold privately through Old Master galleries. The sales info is not made public but you can get an idea of the market by attending an art fair like TEFAF Maastricht or visiting the gallery and making personalised enquiries.
Perhaps the real issue is a matter of money. At the top end, old master paintings may actually be more valuable than any work by a contemporary or modern artist. The record price for a work of art at auction is, after all, for an Old Master.
There is no one category which is especially in, or out of, fashion. One could say that colorful works painted on panel or copper which accentuate their brightness have a broader appeal than paintings by artists who paint in subdued tones of brown and green. I think that portraits have a particular appeal, which explains why an unattributed male portrait sold at Sotheby’s this February for multiples of its estimate. Some of the greatest of all Old Master collectors from Henry Clay Frick to, more recently, Aso Tavitian (whose collection was recently bequeathed to the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown) have been drawn to portraiture, and some of the greatest of all artists such as Rembrandt and Raphael excelled at it. I am sure there is still a ‘trophy’ component. Ken Griffin, best known for his collection of Post War American art seems to have recently bought a famous version of the Leonardo Madonna of the Yarnwinder, but people will also buy works by anonymous artists. We recently sold a small northern 17th-century painting to the Montreal Museum for a seven figure sum by an anonymous artist known only as the Master IS.
We source globally from private collections, colleagues in the art world and directly at auction. Almost all the works we source are in free circulation, which means that regardless of where you are, we will be able to ship the artwork to you without the uncertainty or extra time commitment for obtaining export papers.
We jotted down some thoughts in our guide for new collectors. Some of our clients exclusively buy from dealers, others buy both from dealers and auction houses. Ultimately, it is a personal preference and there is no harm in trying out all three!
Collectors have always cared about scholarship and great scholars in the past, Berenson, Bode, Valentiner and Fry to name a few, advised them. What has changed however, is that with the rise in value of modern painting people have become more nervous about the attribution of Old Masters. Post War art is much better documented and many of the artists whose works are extremely valuable, such as Jasper Johns, are still alive. Conversely, the attribution of many old masters can be hotly debated. The Polish Rider by Rembrandt in the Frick was for a while ‘demoted’ to being by a follower. This is especially true of discoveries of lost works by major artists which do happen from time to time but can also be optimistic. The debates around the authorship of Old Masters has been going on for centuries. Caravaggio’s works were replicated in his own lifetime. This is off-putting for some collectors, but in reality applies to a small minority of paintings in the category. Collectors are aware that this is the case and tend to trust the integrity of scholars in a particular field and the value of a consensus of opinion as an endorsement of attribution. A good example of how this works well is the vetting at TEFAF which weighs traditional attributions and the combined expertise of the members of a vetting committee. This process is extremely reassuring to potential buyers who visit the fair.
The Old Master category has definitely picked up recently. The Old Master sales at the auction houses did well this February and so did TEFAF despite the Iran war. I cannot speak authoritatively, but my sense is that the contemporary market has found business tougher than it used to be. The primary market was always speculative and buying something just made from a gallery and then putting it in auction a year later is much more risky than it once was. Even blue chip artists like Koons and Serra have slipped in value. I think people see real intrinsic value in Old Masters, not so much as an investment but as a field which is currently still undervalued. In addition, fashion has changed in terms of decoration and many people don’t want to live in a white cube with Prouvé furniture and Ryman paintings. When one isn’t buying recognisable ‘brand’ artists such as Warhol and Rothko one can express oneself in a more individual way. There is so much variety: with Old Masters, as one is looking at 500 years of the production of devotional works, portraits, mythological pieces, landscapes, still lifes..made in every European country, each with its own flavor. I suspect that the publicity surrounding the sale of very valuable works such as the Rembrandt Standard Bearer, the Leonardo Salvator Mundi and the drawing of a foot by Michelangelo jolts the market and makes people aware that one can actually buy old art by major artists and this gets people looking at the category in general, right down to works at the lower end of the price spectrum. I am sure people are amazed that one can buy works by artists such as Reynolds or Boucher, who are represented in the Frick and were the greatest artists of their day, for less than $100,000.
Money matters
An Old Master can be a great work of art and still not have a firm attribution. Example of an undisputed masterpiece include the Portrait of Luca Pacioli in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, which is sometimes attributed to Jacopo de’ Barberi.
It is not uncommon that some 14th – 17th century artists are referred to as “the Master of …” A familiar example is Robert Campin of Tournai, one of the earliest practitioners of painting in oil, who was known as the ‘Master of Flémalle’ before it became the consensus that Campin was his real identity.
Broadly speaking, however, the fame of the artist will affect the value of the work. Let’s take the example of the painters associated with the Barbizon School. A landscape painting by Corot is most likely more valuable than a similar landscape by Charles François Daubigny or Narcisse-Virgile Diaz de La Peña. Innovation and originality are also important drivers of value, Lucas Cranach the Elder is more highly prized than his son and ditto Pieter Breugel.
I feel people feel more at ease now than before in this field. The Old Master world used to be like an exclusive club which was forbidding for new potential buyers. Now, with so much information online, the presence of galleries and auction houses on social media and the greater transparency of auction prices on the internet, new Old Master buyers feel more welcome and at ease. If anything, this is a refreshing change from some of the contemporary art galleries who make potential first-time buyers feel like second class citizens. That said, although we do see signs of real growth in the Old Master category, both the price point and the number of active collectors is still heavily skewed in the direction of Impressionist, Modern, Post War and Contemporary art. Even so, the interest in Old Masters is exceptionally high. Just look at the two hour queue to get into the Prado, the crowds at the Louvre and the popularity of the Siena and now Raphael exhibitions at the Met. When I was last at the Raphael show I was interested in the age range, with much of the audience under 30 years of age.
After buying
Wire fraud is a real issue and a recent case involving a London dealer and the Rijksmuseum has drawn attention to this. We send invoices to clients with extra protection and strongly recommend that they call us to confirm the wiring instructions to ensure that the payment is made to the correct entity.
To be honest we have never been put in this position. Typically, the negotiation of a deal can take a few days, if not longer during which the buyer has plenty of time to contemplate his or her offer, and in some cases, see the work of art in situ at their home. The moment we reach an agreement on price, we will issue the invoice and payment is due. It is not unusual, however, if a collector wishes to trade something in their existing collection as whole or part payment for something they would rather have – we can certainly help.
Yes. We guarantee authenticity and good title at the time of sale.
Practical questions about owning a picture
There is a range of opinion on this. Ideally a painting is hung in its original frame, though this is a highly unusual situation. We will recommend framers who can either provide an excellent replica or an antique frame of the right period and country of origin. Some collectors like to frame paintings as they were framed by historic collectors, for example Northern seventeenth-century paintings are conventionally framed in simple black models but sometimes in eighteenth-century French types which reflect the collecting taste of later great collectors of Dutch and Flemish paintings such as Catherine the Great.
Oil paintings are relatively unaffected by light conditions, though this is not true of works on paper. UV protection on both windows and the glass helps mitigate the effects of sunlight, but the safest way to protect drawings and pastels is to keep them away from natural light, or indeed any bright light. Humidity is a serious consideration for paintings, especially panels which will move with fluctuations in humidity causing cracks and the flaking of the paint surface. Panels are especially vulnerable to damage in dry conditions and so it is recommended that humidity stays above 40%. This is managed by climate control systems in museums but is hard to maintain in domestic situations. Portable humidifiers are now quite effective.
We regularly work with art restorers around the world and can recommend specialists in general care, cleaning, restoration of damages, lining of old or torn canvases and the conservation of panels. This is one of our services which we can provide even if we have not been involved in the acquisition of the work of art in question.
Yes! we can provide written valuations of works in our area of expertise for insurance, estate, collateral or just general curiosity. Learn more here or get in touch now.