What makes art valuable?

I suppose in order to answer this question you have to think about how works of art are valued or priced. Art specialists, when considering the value of a work, will look at a number of different indicators, but first and foremost they will consider what similar works by the artist have sold for at auction. Auctions are open market and therefore provide a fair benchmark value for works of art. The idea is that if a work came to auction and someone bid $1m for it then that is what the market is willing to pay for that work of art, hence that is its value.

But what other factors do art specialists look at when valuing works of art?

● If the artist is about to have a big exhibition at a famous museum, that is thought to increase the artist’s notoriety (especially for a living contemporary artist) and hence demand, translating into higher prices.

● Perhaps the artist has just been signed by a mega gallery like Gagosian or Zwirner. When that happens, the gallery will usually embark on a marketing campaign for the new artist, including shows and exhibitions resulting in more demand for the artist and ultimately higher prices.

● Another example is when a well known collector publicly acquires works from an artist’s body of work. Mega collector Charles Saatchi is known for buying entire shows of young artists, causing a frenzy in the market to get access to a work by what collectors will now believe is the next hot artist. This will drive prices up too!

But what can cause prices to go down? A lot of things actually:

● Changes in tastes

● Lukewarm reception (from either critics, the public, or both) to an artist’s latest collection

● Oversupply of works by the artist on the market

● And perhaps most detrimental, is repeated works of art by the artists failing to sell at auction

So far we have really only been considering monetary value. Works of art can have many other types of value. To an individual, they can have sentimental value far outweighing monetary value. A work of art can often be a reflection of the time in which it was created. In that way it can hold significant historical value. As they say “a picture tells a thousand words” and at times, a work of art can better reflect the political climate, society and changing culture than any article or history book.

At PatronageDAO we believe that monetary value is a direct reflection of the value the masses place on a work of art. That’s why our community will decide what works of art we acquire, where they are shown and how the collection will grow. When the people enjoying the works of art act as the curators, we can only pick winners, because our community is a microcosm of our world, and represents every walk of life and belief system, sharing values of openness and belonging.