30 Apr COLLECTOR’S NOTEBOOK: WEIGHING OPTIONS: SETTING ART’S VALUE

When buying art — whether to fill a bare wall or add to a comprehensive collection of objects — some people hesitate before handing over their credit card, wondering, “Is this worth what I’m paying?”

The price and value of art do not necessarily follow standard market rules, unlike most things you buy. Pricing is often subjective, influenced by an artist’s reputation, historical significance, medium, provenance, and market demand. Art’s value can depend on trends, cultural shifts, and collector interests. Blue-chip artists (like Picasso, Warhol, or Basquiat) are considered safer investments, while emerging artists can be riskier but offer higher potential returns.

This reality can leave collectors feeling a little queasy, so this column will add additional context to the business of collecting and the role that art dealers and institutions play in establishing art’s value.

Make It or Break It: Art Dealers

Galleries and art dealers work with artists to set prices and introduce work to collectors. While dealers are the face of a gallery, handling sales and greeting customers, they actually play a much bigger role in building value — or, more precisely, the perceived value — of art.

In Michael Shnayerson’s book Boom: Mad Money, Mega Dealers, and the Rise of Contemporary Art, he sums up the art market like this: “The meteoric rise of the largest unregulated financial market in the world — for contemporary art — is driven by a few passionate, guileful, and very hard-nosed dealers. They can make and break careers and fortunes.”

Art dealers worldwide work behind the scenes to get their artists in magazines and newspapers and to shore up auction results, sometimes bidding works up or buying them at high prices to maintain or increase an artist’s value. They also ensure their artists are discovered at the right art fairs and that prominent buyers collect seminal works because an artwork’s value increases if it’s owned by a notable collector or exhibited in a prestigious institution. And if an artist’s work is highly sought after or rare, its price rises.

These tried-and-true marketing strategies were used by French dealer Paul Durand-Ruel in the mid-1800s, who changed the business forever when he started paying his artists’ monthly stipends to produce work. He so strongly believed in their art when no one else did that he kept championing it in the market until his efforts finally paid off — in spades. Those artists became known as the “Impressionists.”

Everyone knows the Impressionists today, but their work was openly mocked when Durand-Ruel was their biggest patron. Indeed, Monet, Degas, and Renoir would have found success at some point, but having a strong art dealer hastened their acceptance.

As a collector, it’s wise to visit with art dealers and gallerists to discover whose work they admire. Be sure to keep an open mind during your discussion — you may not like what they like, but listen for why an artist is important. You can then apply those ideas to art that does strike your fancy. You may be surprised to discover these experts are generous with their knowledge. Gallerists like it when seasoned collectors search for pinnacle works of art, those “painter’s paintings” and “sculptor’s sculptures.”

Shaping Trends and Tastes: Museum Curators

Museums, especially non-profit institutions, follow strict ethical guidelines prohibiting the sale of art to cover operational costs. There are no official laws guiding deaccessions in the U.S., but most museum officials adhere to those established by industry groups like the Association of Art Museum Directors and the American Alliance of Museums, the latter of which states: “A museum may transfer an object to another museum or sell it, but if a deaccessioned object is sold, museum professional ethics require the proceeds from the sale be used only to acquire new objects for the collection or provide direct care of the collection.”

However, museums still influence art market trends. When a museum acquires or exhibits an artist’s work, it serves as a stamp of approval, signaling to collectors and investors that the artist’s point of view is important. Additionally, museum exhibitions bring attention to artists, styles, or movements, often leading to a rise in demand. And once an artist’s work enters a major permanent collection, its market value usually increases because it’s now part of an institutional legacy.

When museums deaccession artwork, it can also influence the market by introducing rare, museum-quality pieces for collectors and investors. High-profile deaccession sales can set new price records at auction.

American art collector and heiress Marguerite “Peggy” Guggenheim is a good example of the relationship between collectors, art dealers, and museums. During World War II she owned Art of This Century, a gallery in New York City, where she exhibited and sold works by Jackson Pollock, Max Ernst, Clyfford Still, Mark Rothko, and others. She also paid some of her artists’ stipends to work and was the driving force behind the careers of many Cubists, Surrealists, and Abstract Expressionists. However, she is best known for her prescient collecting ability — or perhaps it’s the other way around. Did she create the market by establishing the careers of the artists she collected?

Museum curators are aware of the market, but factors outside the market drive their buying decisions. Collectors who wish to understand how art is valued might join groups that support museum curators in their quest to buy pinnacle works of art.

Susan Barnett, Curator of Western American Art for the Whitney Western Art Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, offers additional insight. Her most recent exhibition, Pop! Goes the West, opened May 24 and runs through January 26, 2026, and features works by such artists as Tracy Stuckey, Gordon McConnell, Anne Coe, Thom Ross, Andy Warhol, and Billy Schenck.

“We’re always looking for artists with a fresh take on the West,” Barnett says, explaining that the curators consider several factors before adding works to their collection. “What are the stories we’re missing in our collection? And what artists are thinking about the West we live in today?”

The catch is that the “wow” pieces from the past are either already in museums or are too expensive to buy, and work from living artists’ studios may be affordable but unproven. To the latter point, Barnett says, “Any artist doing something exceptional will be different and look risky.”

In the book Pop Art, a Critical History, Albert H. Barr Jr., the first director of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, is remembered as saying: “If one choice in 10 that we make turns out to be valid in retrospect, we will have done very well indeed.” This line underscores the immense problem museums — and collectors — face when buying art by living artists, especially those doing work that doesn’t easily fit into known categories.

But don’t let those odds stop you. Again, trust the curator, ask questions, and know you are contributing to a bigger mission. The best plan is to study the market from both sides, commercial and nonprofit. Visit galleries, then look to see what museums are collecting. An artist should be able to slowly and consistently raise their prices; this indicates a solid, thriving career that you can feel good about. If museums offer an artist a show or collect their work, take this as a serious stamp of approval. And when faced with art that catches you off guard and stirs a reaction inside you, remember that most collectors hated the Impressionists.

Curator and writer Rose Fredrick shares her extensive knowledge about the inner workings of the art market on her blog, The Incurable Optimist, at rosefredrick.com.