Everyone has probably heard of these large auction galleries for art that take place once in a while. A few of the most famous ones (and where the higher ticket items are sold) are located in large cities such as New York City or Paris. There, a few of the most successful people in the world gather in order to bid for rare art pieces of specific artistic creations that they believe will gain value in the upcoming years (as an investment.)
Nowadays though, and as the Internet keeps on spreading like fire, more and more of these auctions are taking place online. Even if you look at E-bay, that is a very simple platform to use for auctions. But of course there are a lot more platforms that specialize purely on the arts. The good thing with these sites, is that they offer more every day people the opportunity to bid for these items. Not everyone can take his car or plane and go down to NYC for the event. So at the comfort of your own home, you are able to basically bid on items that you otherwise would only fantasy about. Another good thing about these online platforms for art bids, is that they can offer items that are of lower value and significance. So in other words, even if you were to get your tail in New York you still probably wouldn’t be able to afford to pay for any of those paintings.
So these online auctions focusing on art, really give people an opportunity to access things that won’t cost them a small fortune.
A very good example of an auction that will take place offline, is this one which is expected to pull in roughly $45 million. Auction location has been announced and it is London. So in this case for example, the average person working at Wendy’s isn’t able to bid for this painting no matter how much he fantasizes about it. It is interesting because the majority of these events are attended by individuals and not groups of people. So unless you have a net worth good enough to sustain such a purchase, you are pretty much screwed. So if you want the “Bauerngarten” painting so much, you either need to cough up $45 million or move on and forget about it.
I know that with what I’m about to say now, I will start a small fight again (but it’s okay, I can take the heat.) What are your thoughts about selling and buying art? Is art supposed to be something treated like a business or more of a free area – no business area?
Well, depending on who you ask you will get the common yes or no answer to this, but in reality there are a few more answers: it really depends on what type of painting that is, who created it, what was its purpose etc. If this painting was a creation of a little child down in Africa who in his spare child made something beautiful (like an anti-war painting) but passed away and people are trying to sell it…well you know what I’m going to say. It’s not that you would be robbing the little child in this case (he/she would have passed.) But it’s not fair in the memory of the child, to take advantage of his innocent soul to make an extra dollar. If the painting is being created by professional artists that do this for a living, then they should make a lot more than $45 million. I know that many of you will not agree even with that, but if you want art and quality to move on and become better, you need to cough up some dough. As in anything, if you don’t fund it it will die. So having money rolling in and out of the arts industry (yes, it’s an industry and it should be) is a good thing! You keep art a live and help money trade more hands.
Honestly, if you don’t think people should trade arts (either as a business or as a hobby and something fun) then you probably shouldn’t be on this blog. We won’t take advantage of the little children in the undeserved areas, but we can’t expect from artists to live in their mother’s basements while some lazy douche bags enjoy the sweet fruit of that artist’s labor. If the artist is willing to give a painting away for free or auction it for a charity event, that is his choice to make. But please: don’t go all over the Internet and start preaching to people that art should be free and all of that. If you want it to be free, it will go away: it’s as simple as that.
Come back for more interesting topics of discussion!