The Value of Found Art: A New Van Gogh Story?

Could that old art you found in storage let you retire early?

Many of us have found guilty pleasure in watching episodes of Storage Wars on A&E and becoming convinced that valuable treasures are locked up behind every orange-colored aluminum garage door all over suburban America. We read articles in the New York Times  about the off-chance yard sale finds that turn out to be worth a small fortune when sold at auction. Even documentaries such as The Lost Leonardo, which follows the supposed discovery in an Alabama barn, the extensive restoration and eventual secretive sale of Leonardo Divinci’s long-lost Salvator Mundi as the world's most expensive piece of art, keep even the professionals in the art advisory industry ever tantalize and hoping for that next big find. The good news is, just as in those cases, all of it is possible and happens every day.

IS MY ART VALUABLE?

IT JUST MIGHT BE

When auction houses or art dealers handle art on the secondary market, the value they set for a piece of art is dictated by past results from the artist or similar works by other well-known artists. Most auction houses will not take to market art from artists who have no record in the extensive databases tracking all “known” art. For this reason, while your great-aunt Virginia's art is very well done and looks beautiful on your wall, it does not bring more monetary value than the sentimental attachment.

For an art gallery to take on a new or unknown artist, they usually extensively vet them, review most or all of their works, and offer them very undesirable commission rates and then might only take on consignment a small group of the artists' pieces and would rarely give them high-traffic space in the gallery; it may take years and lots of negotiations by young artists to “break in” to the industry and become profitable and eventually sought after. Only once they make it to this point can an artist dictate their own terms and select from the galleries clambering after them. Most who pick up a brush and set their canvas on an easel never experience the fortune.

For this reason, a great number of “hobbyist” art is often found sitting in people's possession or in storage, inherited from grandma and distributed amongst the family, or attempted to be sold on craigslist.com or other easily accessible markets.

But with the correct strategy and an expert eye, some of this art, especially collections in large quantities or of a certain age, might be more marketable or could be presented in such a way that it may become more accepted and even sought after by the “professionals”.

Even Vincent Van Gogh died penniless as a struggling artist, with almost none of his art sold in his lifetime. But because of the volume of his collection and the correct interest being applied, his art has soared to great heights and set the standard for impressionism. This story is not unique and might be primed to repeat itself in today’s market.

A NEW VAN GOGH STORY?

The value of found art: a new Van Gogh story

Chamli Art Services recently had the great honor of working with a client in California with a large collection of such art. His father was a prolific painter in the mid-1960s and early 70’s, even fabricating his own simplistic frames because this was the only option as a struggling artist. Our client inherited a large amount of art upon the passing of his father, who had almost no known history. Because of the sheer volume of pieces and the quality of the technique, Chamli Art Services brought a few pieces to auction at a well-established Southern California auction gallery that was willing to take a chance on the pieces. 

As Western contemporary art has begun to grow in popularity as a genre, the pieces in our client’s collection, ranging in subject matter from the California coastal hills to floral still life and even portraits of some of the more colorful citizenry of a dying rural culture in post-war California, were now very intriguing. Even those simplistic frames, now coated with a layer of dust, had newfound intrinsic value.

The response to those first few pieces has led to the artist having a somewhat Van Gogh-like posthumous success. Had our client not reached out and consulted with a professional art advisor and structured a careful plan for a timely and careful release of these works to market, his father’s art might still be unknown to the world and left at a relatively low value. Today, the collection's total value could be considered valued at nearly $500,000.00, and to the right collector, the future prospects of these pieces are limitless.

The value of found art: a new Van Gogh story

WHY CHAMLI?

The Expert Opinion

Don’t get hung up on the medium in which art is produced. There are strong markets for folk art, otherwise known as depression era “tramp” art, pottery, and lost arts such as needlepoint or carving. Much of it might not be desired by the newfound owner, but if you have a collection which you are uncertain of its value, please allow Chamli Art Services to use our extensive network to connect you to the right art advisors and help bring your art to the correct market. We will work with you to explain our understanding of what you have and present the best steps to maximize the best possible return. 

For art you plan to keep and enjoy, we can work with you to bring out the newfound life in the piece with our industry-leading art restoration and framing partners. We can also assist in the installation and design aesthetics of its new space.

No matter what you might need or what the art subject matter could be, Chamli Art Services is here to be your partner throughout the

entire process.