Ultimately, most high-end artwork is one of one, and each individual work needs to be assessed individually. Beyond the obvious characteristics (type of artwork, artist, era, medium), there are a number of other factors to consider when evaluating the value of a work. These are in no particular order.

Authenticity

Authenticity involves not only verifying that something is not forged, but also examining the degree of a work’s originality. Even if the painting is not a forgery, if something has been changed or repaired, that has to be made clear to potential buyers as it may negatively impact a work’s value. Auction houses such as Sotheby’s or Christie’s have teams of people that work solely on verifying authenticity. Authenticity can be determined a number of different ways, whether that be through the artist, dealers, galleries representing that artist, foundations dedicated to that artist or the period of art that the artist falls into, or third-party firms that specialize in authentication. However, the best friend of any authenticator is that artist’s Catalogue Raisonné. A Catalogue Raisonné is the definitive guide to every work known to be produced by a single artist. Essentially, if a work by an artist is in their Catalogue Raisonné, it is considered authentic. That being said, just because a work is not in the Catalogue Raisonné does not necessarily mean that it is not authentic. If there is no documentary evidence of a work, then one would build a scholarly consensus through expert opinions, third party authenticators and technological examination. If there are questions around authenticity, it is a non-starter for 99.9% of art buyers.

There have however been examples of works with questionable authenticity being purchased for vast sums, most notably when Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, paid just over $450 million for a work at Christie’s, setting a record for the highest price ever paid for a single work of art. The piece, Salvator Mundi, was being marketed as the only privately held work by Renaissance painter Leonardo da Vinci. Before the auction occurred, there was substantial disagreement in the art world around whether this work was actually painted by da Vinci. This lack of scholarly consensus did not prevent the Saudi Prince from purchasing it for four and a half times the price estimate placed on it by Christie’s.

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Rarity

While not too difficult to analyze, it can be difficult in assessing the role rarity plays in value. Just because something is rare does not make it valuable, and just because something is valuable does not necessarily mean that it is rare. Rarity only becomes a factor when there is significant desirability for a work. The overwhelming majority of paintings are one-of-one or entirely unique, whereas sculptures have a slightly higher likelihood of being editioned or cast. Jeff Koons, Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst either were or are all prolific artists, each producing thousands of works across many media. Warhol for example, would make tens if not hundreds of prints of a single work, and yet they remain very desirable. There are levels to this though: Warhol’s iconic prints of Marilyn Monroe fetch anywhere between $150,000 and $400,000 today depending on color and conditions. But one of the original five Marilyn works on which these prints are based sold at Christie’s in May of 2022 for $195 million, which goes to show the premium that some are willing to pay for rarity.

Provenance

Provenance is the history of a work’s journey from the studio to the buyer. The story of ownership can be just as interesting, if not more interesting than a work itself. The most notable example of this is Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, a painting colloquially referred to as “The Woman in Gold.” This painting was seized from the Bauer family in Vienna during the onset of the Second World War, and was not returned until 2006 after a multi-year legal battle. If a work has been owned by a major collector such as Eli Broad, Steven Cohen, or S.I. Newhouse, that can also go a long way to validating or enhancing the value of a work. Those individuals’ reputations as mega-collectors with remarkably discerning eyes for quality confer a certain status onto the works which landed in their collections, and can have a positive impact on work’s value. If a work has been exhibited at a major art fair such as the Venice Biennale, Frieze, or Art Basel, that means that there have been substantially more eyes on the work, media coverage of that work, and likely scholarship of that work. These can all have positive impacts on an artwork’s value. Additionally, museum exhibitions can make a work significantly more valuable.

The final element of provenance is where it has been sold. If a Pop or Abstract Expressionist work was originally purchased from the gallery of legends such as Leo Castelli or Ileana Sonnabend, it adds to the story of ownership, and will have a positive impact on the value of that piece.

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Condition

Most works will show signs of age over time, and so a work in pristine “like-new” condition generally will significantly outperform the rest of that artist’s oeuvre or the broader market of the era. Many older works have condition issues and even more contemporary works from artists such as Richard Diebenkorn or Joan Mitchell are often found to have some surface cracking, to the point where it is strange if they do not have cracks. There are times where a work may need retouching or repairs, but over-doing that can negatively impact a work’s value. The degree of retouching can only truly be analyzed with technology that examines variables such as the chemical composition of pigment, or variance in age from one corner of the work to another.

Taste

What was highly popular just a few decades ago may no longer be popular today. That being said, taste does not always apply to works of remarkably exceptional quality. There was a time in the latter half of the 20th century when sporting pictures depicting dogs, horses, and hunting were very popular. While images with such subject matter have dropped off in aggregate commercial desirability, a work by George Stubbs, who is widely considered to be the greatest horse painter ever, is still just as valuable today if not more so because of the exceptional quality of his work. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Japanese economy was booming. Japanese collectors became particularly fond of impressionist art, which created an impressionist bubble for about a decade. This peaked in 1990 when Ryoei Saito, a paper executive, paid $160 million to acquire two paintings, one by Vincent Van Gogh and the other by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. When the Japanese economy slowed in the mid to late 90s, Japanese individuals and corporations that had purchased significant amounts of impressionist art began to sell. This fire sale created significant downward pressure on the impressionist market. Even now, more than two decades after this bubble collapsed, the taste for impressionist paintings has yet to rebound to the levels of the 1980s and 90s.

Size

Oftentimes, scale means that a particular work is important. If you are looking for statement pieces, they often tend to need space. The greater detail, the greater the subject matter, and the more significant a work is within a particular artist’s oeuvre, the more likely it is that that piece will necessitate a certain scale in order to convey what the artist intended. That being said, a mediocre work with excess scale can be less valuable than a work of similar quality with a scale more conducive to the quality of that work. While scale generally has a positive correlation with value, there is an inflection point. Once you enter a monumental scale, it can hurt the value of work. The challenge of displaying enormous works spawned the term “Park Avenue Doorway” to represent a sort of litmus test necessary in determining the commercial viability of the work. If it can fit through the doorway of a Park Avenue co-op, then size is not something to worry about. A similar dynamic plays out in valuing sculpture. The value of sculpture can have a positive correlation with scale, up to the point where floors begin to need to be reinforced, or cranes are required to move a piece. While these things may seem secondary to the quality of a work, it is hard to sell something that a buyer cannot display.

Quality

Quality is probably the most subjective of these criteria. There are multiple ways of assessing quality, whether that be the skill of the artist or the degree of technical or methodological innovation. However, more than anything, quality is an intrinsic, inarticulable, “je ne sais quoi” that one observes when standing in front of a work of art. You can feel it. Quality transcends generations, and appears timeless in its beauty. It does not have to be old or traditional, nor does it have to appeal to everyone. Ultimately, quality is the most important variable in assessing the value of art.

Conclusion

While there are many variables to consider when examining a work’s value, it is vital to assess all the preceding factors regardless of artist, era or medium - whether investing fractionally or purchasing whole paintings.

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