Art Sellers Beware

The WSJ’s Daniel Grant writes about sellers of art becoming increasingly suspicious of art buyers and gives some advice on how to avoid becoming a sucker.

So how do you avoid becoming a sucker? Gaining expertise in a hurry may not be possible, but there are ways to obtain enough information to proceed cautiously. There are, for instance, online auction-results sites that buyers and sellers use regularly—such as ArtNet.com, AskArt.com and Artprice.com—and they may offer a sense of how comparable works of art have done at public sales. (Art dealers and gallery owners tend to keep their own price and sales information confidential.)

A buyer or seller is always free to hire a professional art appraiser, many of whom are members of the Appraisers Association of America, the International Society of Appraisers or the American Society of Appraisers.

Tags: art crime, art fraud, Art Law, auction houses