Case Study #1: The Lost Sale

Artist Michael Anson has been painting for 30 plus years, but has never shown in a gallery. He retained our services after a commissioned art piece, shown below, went unpaid. Our first course of action was to examine his work in total, inquire as to his sales history, there was none, and to find out exactly what happened and how to best position Michael so that it would not occur again. Often, we find that our artist clients do not have the business strategies or background to make effective decisions.

According to Michael, he was approached by a collector seeking an unusual painting for a New York City living room. After reviewing his work and recognizing that Michael was unknown having never exhibited in a gallery, he commissioned Michael for $10,000 to paint a large 6' x 4' piece. After showing his benefactor a few sketches, it was decided that a single, partially nude woman on a beach would suffice. Initially, that "woman" was the model appearing in the far right of the painting. During the course of the work, Michael kept the buyer apprised of the painting's progress, and his decision to include two additional models. Michael clearly became enraptured with his own work, and the delivery date was postponed by three months as Michael further embellished the painting.

Upon completion, Michael contacted his benefactor for a viewing and final payment ($9,000); a $1,000 good faith deposit was paid six months earlier.

How ArtInvestment, Inc. Took Charge:

We contacted the benefactor, and it was clear that although he was a savvy collector, he knew that Michael was unknown and, more importantly, he desired the piece for "decoration purposes" only; he was not acquiring it as a collector of Michael's works, who was unknown in the art world. We attempted to salvage the initial transaction, but the buyer was so disgusted with Michael's approach that he no longer wanted to pursue the piece.

We immediately set out to shield Michael from any further transactions and to seek a series of gallery showings. Through our contacts, we were able to place his first showing at the Kamen Gallery in Chelsea located at 461 West 19th Street. Kamen has a reputation of taking on new artists exhibiting a style of realism but with a twist, which suited Michael's works perfectly. ArtInvestment supplemented Kamen's mailing list for the opening night with our proprietary list. We coordinated the advertising through social media, FaceBook, Twitter, and Craig's List, which surprising had a very large pull.

At opening night, Michael sold two paintings initially priced at $23,000 and $17,000, but selling for $16,000 and $11,000, respectively. Kamen kept the customary 50%. The following evening, Michael sold "What Do You Want?" for $12,000 netting $6,000.

Case Study #2: Talent but Lack of Marketing Ability

Our client, accomplished artist Walter Comporeale, has a long distinguished career of gallery showings and avid collectors of his work. His painting career commenced in the 1930s. In 1949, he studied in Paris under Fernand Leger. It was during this time that Walter was exposed to Expressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism. He befriended Magritte; however, Walter's delving into only Surrealism was minimal. As can be seen from his work in "Desert Sky", the painting exhibits elements of both Surrealism and Cubism as well, where as "Violina" exhibits the Cubist style.

Upon his death in 2011, Walter's large body of work was permanently displayed in the Rehs Gallery, Inc. on West 57th Street in New York City. However, sales have slumped, and the few fervent collectors of his work have ceased collecting. The challenge of his estate was to how to revive investment sales.

How ArtInvestment, Inc. Took Charge:

We started by meeting with Henry Kaiser, Director of Rehs Gallery, Inc., to determine the history of sales and the prices for same. We then personally contacted the six avid collectors of Walter's works to determine their interest level and their reasons for collecting other artists instead of Walter. From this information gathering period, we learned that five of the six collectors initially collected his work for the sole reason that they recognized his talent and liked his work; investment was secondary. However, with the passage of time and the current recession, their buying has ceased and trickled at best. Walter's works typically sold in the range of $50,000 to $70,000. We also found that the after market for his work precipitously dropped off around 2005, just prior to the current recession, and this, too, gave reticence to collectors with respect to acquiring not only new works by Walter, but from other artists as well. The challenge to ArtInvestment, Inc. was to how to revive investor interest.

We sat with Mr. Kaiser after preparing a preliminary business plan for promoting Walter's work. This plan called for an initial investment of $43,000 to fund four gallery showings, which was inclusive of New York Times advertisements in the weeks preceding each showing, which were to be spaced every three months. We then reconnected with the collectors to inform them of the scheduled showings and receptions, and offered each collector a significant discount for future purchases. This was complemented by a series of press releases that we prepared for various publications, art societies/guilds, and tour groups. Social media was used for the first time in the promotion of Walter's work, as well. Our strategy was to create some "early wins" for the gallery and some buzz within the local art market. Very importantly, we increased the gallery's share of proceeds from 50% to 65%.

Using the preceding as a foundation, we then contacted * O Mansion Art Leasing, which has what we believe to be the finest corporate art leasing program in New York City. A total of ten pieces were loaned, no fee charged to O Mansion, and all were placed in Fortune 500 lobbies and C-suite private offices. This strategy was employed six months prior to Rehs's receptions to create awareness of the work and legitimacy of the work.

After a period of 18 months, we successfully sold $432,000 of his work netting Walter's estate approximately $160,000. Furthermore, our services revived collectors and we created three additional, new collectors as well.