The real value of the art piece; how to estimate and what factors to be counted?

Have you ever wondered how the artwork will be priced? What criteria will be used to price them? This is because the artwork is not like the commodity goods which can be priced by the market standard and demands. Some prices of the artworks which are created by a similar artist are substantially different. For instance, some of his works cost one thousand THB while the other was one million THB. There should be some factors to price the work. There should not be some fickle standard to value the artwork.

According to the art experts’ recommendation and my trial-and-error experience, the criteria can be generated as followed. This criterion has to be memorized by heart; perhaps, next time I won’t be trapped by my emotion and feeling towards the works.

Artist is the first factor to mention. In fact, I wouldn’t encourage the collectors to buy the painting from the famous one as it will be hard for the new coming artists to penetrate the market. However, it is undeniable that the artwork value always depends on the artist’s name. The more famous they are, the higher price of their works will be. Nonetheless, the famous artists today have to keep maintaining the high-level price of their works because if they do not dedicate themselves to producing good art continually or nobody promotes their works, these artists and their works can be disappeared from the market easily. As far as the value of artwork is concerned, those artists have become widely influential in art history in some manners, and their works have been recognized in world-class museums resulting in the increasing price of their works.

Secondly, the materials of the artwork are another factor to be counted in the price structure especially for the sculpture art. The price of a golden sculpture certainly is higher than the metal one. Despite the similar material and artist, some artworks are differently priced. In terms of painting, the least valued artwork is the paper-painting or pen and pencil-sketching.

Water painting works have a bit higher price when compared with sketching ones. Meanwhile, the paintings by the poster paint, colored powder, or pastels are priced higher than the water painted work. The price of the paper-based painting is less attractive than the canvas-based as it is vulnerable and difficult to preserve. Oil or acrylic painting is more durable than paper-based paintings if it is well preserved. Personally, Oil painting is more preferable to acrylic one owing to the thick texture of the paint. Moreover, it looks appealing when time passes as the oil paint will be cracked in an unpredictable pattern. Nevertheless, the price structure can be flexible. Some artwork on paper is more expensive than work on canvas due to the artist’s specialty. There have been various materials that contributed to the artworks in the modern days resulting in the hardship of setting the pricing structure.

Size is also important. The larger it is; the harder it is created. Not only does the long time to create matter, but the assorted materials are also another element to elevate the cost of the work. Moreover, it is difficult to sell a large artwork because the collector’s place may not be spacious enough. Therefore, the large one is mostly created for the mega-exhibition, museum, or by the special request from the VIP customers. This could fall into a very rare category as it is quite hard to trade and the owner may want to keep it for themselves. Should you feel like owning a large art piece, you need to have a strong determination.

Counterfeit is a troublesome factor in the collector’s world. Any best-selling artwork is in the spot to get reproduced by the crooks. Most of the time, it is difficult to differentiate the real ones from the forgeries, so some art provenance companies have been established to validate whether that artwork is genuine or not by multidisciplinary specialists and high-technology scientific equipment. Moreover, an association named ‘Catalogue Raisonne’ has compiled a comprehensive list of prominent artists and their works. If the artwork is enlisted in this catalog, that artwork is certainly authenticated. As some artworks may not be verified, the owners can send the artworks they purchased to the organization to verify, too; perhaps, there might be some updated or missing information that will be published for the next edition. Should that art piece is falsified, the association will return it to the owner. Some organizations will demolish the orgery right away leaving the owner’s jaw dropped; no matter how much it is. In Thailand, the verification process is very simple as the database of Thai artists is so little that it hasn’t been put on the global list. Should the owner want to validate his artworks, he can go to see the artist in person or ask art specialists. Otherwise, he can ask for more information via the ‘Line’ application. That’s simple. The shifting trend of taste and fashion can be another influential factor for owning the art piece. In some period of time, the buyers felt like having the scenery or floral paintings to decorate their place with their luxurious furniture or beside the lavish spiral staircases. The abstract artwork was once ignored because of its incomprehensible message. When time passes, the popularity of natural painting has been decreasing. The housing design has changed into a minimal trend where space is limited. The abstract painting is more suitable for this kind of housing than the natural painting. Recently, the trend of street art and contemporary become more enthusiastic by the public. No matter how mystified it is. The price of this art is skyrocketing as long as it is in trend.

The condition of the art pieces is another factor of concern. The wrecked condition could downgrade the price especially the old painting where the paint could be rippled, or the fabric got torn apart. The yellowish stains could be visible, These may annoy the feeling. It is recommended that buying the new painting in fresh condition would be a better option. Only if those defective paintings seem very impressive, you can take this imperfect condition to bargain for the price. Those paintings can be restored with the specialist if the most part is in a good condition. However, the restoration fee is not cheap; perhaps, it is more expensive than the painting itself. It is important to check the fee beforehand. On the other hand, some painting problems can be value-added. For example, the painting by Thawan Duchanee in his pioneer time with the scar from the cutter remained of high value. This is because of the underlying story. The teenage audience could not understand the true message of the painting, so he used a cutter to tear off the paintings in an aggressive manner. His action became the talk of the town overnight. Therefore, the cutter scars have added value to Thawan’s painting, and there is no need to restore them as it can deprive the value.

Limited edition of artworks can be an important element. This can be the reason for the deary price of collectibles. Some limited collections: wines, automobiles, or watches, are always produced in larger numbers than artworks. This is because artists have deliberately created their work once at a time. Each piece always looks different as it is manually made. Unlike the sculptures or photographs, the artist can reproduce them several times. It is necessary to look into the artist’s signature and serial number on his artwork. If the serial number of the work is ⅖, this means this work is produced as the second piece out of five. The value and the price of the work depend on the number reproduced in the collection. In contrast, the artwork without a serial number should be avoided as, sometimes, the artist’s heirs intend to reproduce the artwork without any limitation. This could ruin the value of the artwork.

The story of the artwork is another attractive factor to boast about. For example, the
ewe-inspiring story could be like the background of the painting that the artist created during his difficult time. He didn’t have enough cash to spend on his necessity or even bought the paint, so he needed to bite his fingers to get bleeding and used his blood as paint on the stained metal sheet. It took him about a month to complete his work in misery. He, then, submitted his work to several contests and won art competitions all over the world. Although there were many stages to go on, he could not survive the tetanus disease because of his grotesque painting technique. After his death, his work was also disappeared from the market. The artist became a ghost haunting the owner of the house where his painted metal sheet covered as a house roof. Therefore, his artwork got recovered and exhibited at art galleries around the world. Surprisingly, he was praised by Picasso for his brilliant creativity. Such a vivid kind of story can top up the value of the artwork unlike the story of the well-off artist who completed his work after sipping a coffee in the comfy air-conditioned room within an hour.

Artwork with a known origin is more valuable than the one with nothing. This is called ‘provenance’ that can backtrack the owners of the work in the past to the original artist. This is to confirm the genuineness of the artwork that has not been robbed from somewhere. The artwork would be more appealing if the past owners were notable in society. Unlike what happens in Thailand, the past owners hardly reveal any information of their artwork trading as they are afraid of gossip that he sells the work for his living. Thus, the provenance in Thailand is very ambiguous and toned down. Additionally, the information of the artwork, that is shown in exhibitions, or published on the prospectus and art books, is important. If the artwork has been witnessed from several places and media, it becomes widely acknowledged and noteworthy. This information should be recorded in a systematic way as it will be easy to research in the future.

Content is another element in the pricing system. The artworks depicting the picture of a beautiful lady, scenic view, vividly colorful flowers, or mightly wild beasts are easy to sell with a higher price when compared with the painting of aged people, corpses, human excretion, or any creepy creatures. According to the research study, the color also impacts the buyers’ feelings. The bright colorful painting is always easy to sell off especially the red color while the dull-toned picture is very difficult to sell as it is not eye-catching.

Charming from the finest artwork can cast the spell bounding the audiences easily. The more artworks you perceive, the deeper understanding you get. Hence, it is easy to discriminate the poor painting from the finest one. You will be able to distinguish the priceless artwork by the prominent artist from the ordinary work which should be placed at the toilet.

To me, the charming attribution is the most precarious as it lures me to pour my pocket abruptly into the artwork. Before realizing myself, I carry the work home and as I forgot all recommendations above from the expert or forgot to bargain the price. Like what the hearsay is always repeated, ‘Remaining in consciousness is wealthy; broken awareness leaves no place to hang the paintings. Amen.’