How to Buy, Sell, & Have an ‘Aha’ Moment
When Michael Findlay became an assistant at the Richard Feigen Gallery on New York’s Upper East Side, in 1964, young artists making their debut were offering to sell their works in the range of $500 to $10,000, but there weren’t many buyers. Collectors were encouraged with modest prices.
Four years later, when Findlay was director of a Feigen branch downtown, a John Baldessari painting, Quality Material (1966-68), priced at $1,200, hung behind his desk for six months. No one wanted to buy it. In May 2007, it sold at Christie’s for $4.4 million.
Findlay, who later became Christie’s international director of fine arts and since 2000 has been a director of Acquavella Galleries in New York, has sold lots of art for more than modest prices and is one of the world’s most knowledgeable and respected dealers. No one knows more about the market in Impressionist, modern, and contemporary art than Findlay. His new book, The Value of Art, is one of the best ever published on the art world, and covers just about everything you would want to know, including how to buy, sell, look at, and enjoy art.