The only reason to buy art is because your love for the artwork. Those that speculate in an art’s future sale price tend to lose money because art is illiquid.
At auction, art buyers pay 25% of first $200,000 of the hammer price; 20% of amount above $200,000 to $3 million; 12% of excess over $3 million (previously $2 million).
Luckily, thrift stores are a great alternative to Christies and Sotheby’s. In August 2018, I visited my local Goodwill in the West End neighborhood of Atlanta and fell in love with a 6 foot wide oil painting.
I asked how much and went home. Two hours later my thoughts still persisted to the painting. Eventually, I returned to Goodwill and required an Uber XL for the ride home.
The impressionist oil painting now hangs across my bed. My photos above don’t adequately demonstrate its view of nature that fills the room. I’m not the only one that likes art by W. Chapman:
My impulse buy begged the research I failed to do first.
Who is W. Chapman?
The Philbrook Museum of Art, Chapman Library has a folder titled, “Named Person: Charles W Chapman” (source). It turns out Charles W. Chapman’s signature and art style do not match with mine:
I found one other artist in my search, William Ernest Chapman (1858–1947). In some online pages, the signature matches but on reliable sources, as before, the art style and signature do not match.
