Art Appraisal, Art Market, Chinese Art auction houses, Sell Your Chinese Art

How to Sell Your Chinese Art

Selling Your Chinese Art

Today, selling Chinese art can be a big problem. Almost everybody finds it difficult to initiate a sale, and if they need help, there is the added headache of finding the right agent to represent them in the Chinese art market. Many people begin by contacting the famous auction houses, but very few owners receive an insightful response—sometimes no word at all. Others spend hours on the internet without any concrete results. Many owners end the process of trying to sell their art with no knowledge about whether their object is worth anything or where to place it for sale. Do these frustrations sound familiar?

The most important thing to remember is that in order to sell any fine object of art, you need to posses solid information and formulate an educated strategy for sales. These are the two goals of a professional art appraisal: to provide the owner with the information needed to understand and appreciate the art object, and to suggest a clear strategy for sale based on analysis of the current Chinese art market. This is why you should commission an art appraisal from a qualified professional. The details of the process are explained below.

Commission an Art Appraisal

Selling a fine work of art without commissioning an appraisal is a lot more difficult than selling real estate when you have no knowledge of the local real estate market. To begin with, inspiring works of Chinese art have an aesthetic quality and a history that are difficult even for Ph.D.’s to appreciate and explain. In addition, the art market is quite unlike the real estate market, in that it is mysterious, difficult to learn about, and subject to significant fluctuation. You can’t just look up the previous sales records for the object you wish to sell (or buy). These important pieces of knowledge, however, are provided in a professional art appraisal.

A professional art appraisal report usually provides you with the crucial information about your art work you need to know in working with an auction house or dealer. Many owners are overwhelmed by dealers who do not take the time to explain unfamiliar terminology from the worlds of Chinese aesthetics and modern art sales. A knowledgeable owner, educated about the object as well as how objects like it have fared on the market in the recent past, stands a much better chance of profit when negotiating from a position of strength.

An expert art appraisal not only prepares you to deal with professional buyers, but also opens new opportunities. Many people assume that an auction house will always offer the best value for their object, but that is often not true. You need to consider (and understand) an adjusted value estimate, the calculation of insurance costs, fees for catalog illustrations, buy-back reserve fees, and other extra charges and conditions typically subtracted from the hammer price of an auction sale. A professional art appraisal alerts you to these possible charges in clear language and also helps you think creatively about other options, including museum donation, gift to charity, and other measures that can help reduce your tax burden.

Have you received a letter from an auction house that is vague or more complicated than you expected? Don’t panic!--The art appraisal report prepared by our Chinese art specialists will provide all the information you need to sell your Chinese art successfully.

Find a Qualified Chinese Art Appraiser

Finding a qualified Chinese art appraiser is crucial. Before you commit yourself to an appraisal, you need to make sure that your investment on professional services is worthy. Before you hire an appraier, you need to find out if the appraiser has the qualifications for the assignment, or if s/he has a set of sepcial skills in dealing with Chinese art. An appraisal is useless if the appraiser fails to identify the artist of a painting or deciper the names of the artist written in the carving scripts. An appraisal is misleading if the appraiser heavily rely on the identification of the artist's name on the painting without analyzing the artistic merits (brushstrokes, ink quality and shading techniques, choice of medium, etc) of the painting. Does your appraiser know the basics of Chinese art? Does your appraiser read Chinese (classical and modern), understand classical Chinese scripts, and have the ability to conduct research in a Chinese context? Does your appraiser have the ability to separate a fake from an original? Does your appraiser know how to rank a Chinese artist among his equals? Doubtless to say, the fair market value of a fine original Chinese painting differs signifcantly from that of a fine reproduction "in the style" or "after" an original painting by the same artist. A forged painting in the name of a master by a less capable hand is worthless. If your appraiser lacks any of these skills, the value conclusion presented by such appraisal will be less trustworthy. The only way to find a truthful fair market value of your Chinese art work is to hire a qualified Chinese art appraiser.

We are qualified Chinese art specialists with a Ph.D. in Chinese art and training in prestigious universities in the United States. We treat every owner individually and provide original research about each individual object. Our work is based on years of experience in appraisal as well as more than twenty years of professional experience with Chinese art objects, doctoral training in Chinese art, history, and culture, and original published research in the field. Our Comprehensive Art Appraisal package is designed to help you meet your specific goals. We enjoy our job, which is to serve our clients to the best of our abilities, educating them about their objects, and preparing them to enter the art market.

Our Self-contained Art Appraisal is designed to help our clients to meet their goals. The typical appraisal report presents a description and analysis of the object, a carefully calculated fair market value for the object, a thorough market analysis of the current Chinese art market for the object, and a list of recommended sales revenue for the sale of the object. This appraisal report will make you an expert on your artwork.

We care about you and your art exclusively. As professional, independent art appraisers, we represent only you and not potential buyers. If you are interested, please Contact Us, or call us at (609) 688-6891. We are happy to assist you with your Chinese art project at all levels.