I remember standing in my gallery’s back room in 2008, staring at a $4,000 landscape that had arrived from a studio in Cornwall looking like it had been through a literal war zone because the artist thought a bit of bubble wrap and a prayer was a “complete guide to shipping artwork.” The canvas was […]
Oil on canvas, 60cm x 80cm, 1994. I remember a lovely landscape by a local painter that came into my gallery looking like it had been rescued from a damp basement. The collector was convinced he needed a specialist from London to perform a miracle, willing to pay a king’s ransom for what was essentially […]
I once watched a collector spend six thousand pounds on a stunning oil on canvas, 40cm x 40cm, 2022, only to watch him hang it nearly two feet above his mantelpiece like a misplaced afterthought. It was heartbreaking; he had bought a piece of soul, but he displayed it like a piece of cheap wallpaper. […]
I remember a landscape oil, 60 x 80 cm, 1994, which was a magnificent piece of work, but it arrived at my gallery tucked into a frame so flimsy and poorly joined it looked like it had been scavenged from a skip. I watched a collector—a man who usually bought without blinking—turn his nose up […]
Oil on canvas, 60x80cm, 1994. I remember the exact moment I realized that a collector’s “safe” basement was actually a slow-motion death sentence for a beautiful landscape. I was unboxing a piece for a client—a lovely, textured work that should have been a legacy piece—only to find the edges curling like dried autumn leaves because […]
Oil on canvas, 60x80cm, 2014. I remember staring at it in my gallery’s storage room, realizing it was ruined because a junior assistant thought a standard homeowner’s policy was a “complete guide to insuring art.” It wasn’t. It was a death sentence for the artist’s bank account. Most people treat insurance like a tedious checkbox, […]
I remember sitting in my small market town gallery back in ’98, watching a young painter practically weep because a collector had offered him half of what he’d listed his canvas for. He thought he was being insulted; I knew he was just being unprepared. Most people will try to sell you a “complete guide […]
I remember sitting in a drafty corner of my old gallery in 2004, watching a collector pay five figures for a piece that was essentially a well-packaged lie—a work that mimicked a movement it hadn’t actually earned. People talk about a “complete guide to authenticity” as if it’s something you can find in a certificate […]
I remember sitting in a dimly lit backroom of a London auction house in 2004, staring at a stunning oil on canvas, 60cm x 80cm, 1952, and feeling a cold knot of dread in my stomach. The dealer was leaning in, whispering sweet nothings about the “extraordinary pedigree” of the piece, but the paperwork was […]
People love to talk about art auctions as if they are these grand, high-stakes dramas where the elite gather to battle for cultural supremacy. They’ll hand you a glossy brochure and call it a “complete guide to art auctions,” but they rarely mention the mathematical carnage happening behind the scenes. I remember sitting in a […]