As you look around your home, you realise that you’ve started to amass a number of artworks. You also spend hours each week reading about exhibitions, artists, fairs and searching for work on various online platforms. It’s time to admit you’ve been bitten by the art bug. The good news is that you’ll be infected for life, despite the best efforts of economists, accountants and their armies of tenacious number crunchers to find a cure.
Being a collector is not always an easy path to follow. Family and friends will look at you strangely, other collectors will challenge your collecting rationale (or lack thereof), your wealth adviser will try to steer you towards investment vehicles which offer him/her a better kickback, and “Hi, I’m an art collector!” rarely works as a captivating conversation starter outside of galleries and fairs.
But there are things you can do to win friends and admirers along the way by ensuring you collect like a museum curator, no matter what your budget or collection size. The first half of this blog looks at the acquisitions side of collecting; part 2 continues with collection management considerations.
Understand your collecting motivations and aims
Ask yourself honestly why you collect art. In all probability the full answer won’t come to you in a split second. Beyond “because I love it”, are you interested in a particular artform, theme, period, culture, movement, artist, career stage, etc? Or do you see art as a tangible asset class for building wealth? How much can you comfortably afford to spend on acquisitions, without going into debt? Some collectors set an annual budget which can be spent all at once on one artwork or on several over the course of the year, while others impose a per-acquisition limit.
Knowing why you collect and what you hope to achieve helps you stay focussed and to not waste money on art that is irrelevant to your collection. Sure, your aims may change over time, but a serious collector’s motivations and aims don’t change just because they’ve seen the Next Big Thing on Instagram.
Define your collection policy
All good museums have a collection policy which the curators follow. Typically a written document, it defines the parameters of what is allowed to be collected to ensure it’s relevant to the stated charter of the institution. Use the intelligence you’ve gained from the questions above to start defining your own personal collections policy (it doesn’t need to be in writing, but it might be a handy reference if you’re easily distracted by exciting – but irrelevant – art that’s constantly coming on to the market). Obviously as a private collector, you have more latitude to adapt and change your policy as your collecting horizons expand, whereas the National Portrait Gallery will never acquire anything that’s not a portrait. One of the beauties of private collections is that they reflect the idiosyncratic nature of the collector. Plus, you can modify your policy without being subjected to lengthy curatorial committee and Board approval processes, unless you count an invested and/or opinionated life partner as your committee and Board.
Do your research on the artist and dealer
While this might sound blindingly obvious, surprisingly few private collectors research their artists and art sellers in much depth and breadth. You need to have a clear idea of where your chosen collecting area fits within historical and contemporary contexts. Here are just some of the questions you need to consider:
About the artist and artwork: Is the artist emerging, mid-career, late career or deceased? Does their work contribute to or evolve our understanding of art? What are their stated or perceived artistic influences? What type of exhibition and auction records do the artists have? Are they of local, national or international importance? Are they in public or significant private collections? What has been written about them, and where do these articles appear? How well respected is the writer? Have they been the victim of fraud or forgery; what was the outcome? Have they ever disowned work, and under what circumstances?
About the seller: Are they a specialist or generalist? Do they operate in the primary or secondary (resales) market, or both? How long have they been in business? What type of reputation does the art seller have? What has been written about them? Are the names of the owners of the gallery/dealership/auction house publicly available? Do you know anyone who can recommend these sellers to you as trustworthy? If they belong to industry associations, are the associations held in high regard by the industry? Beware of taking the seller’s credentials on face value. Sellers are there, surprisingly, to sell to you and may tell you what you want to hear, which is why background checks are advised.
Build good relationships with galleries and auction houses
Everything you’ve read about getting preferential access to work is true: relationships really matter! Be patient, because the various sellers and industry professionals want to know that you’re not wasting their time and that you’re committed to the artist and to them.
Good galleries take the time to keep their regular collectors informed and support new collectors. They understand that it’s not just about the sale; the relationship between gallery and collector, and collector and artist is fundamentally important and is worth nurturing. Once a good gallery understands your goals, they will go out of their way to help you achieve them.
Money may talk, but a trustworthy relationship is golden.
Take stock of your current holdings
If you already have a collection, particularly if it is quite large, it is worthwhile looking at the collection as a whole to identify where the gaps are. Ideally, installing everything in a large space and physically walking through it will help you identify your collection’s strengths, weaknesses (earmark these works for deaccession) and gaps.
If you can’t physically install everything, work with physical or digital “mood” boards. Move the images around and group them into categories. This will help you identify the strengths of your collection and where your future efforts need to be directed.
Freelance curators can also be helpful in assessing your current collection and planning future acquisitions.
Part 2 will cover provenance and condition reports, conservation, storage, transport, insurance and documentation.
