How do they appraise the value of paintings or anything valuable?

Question

i mean what makes a painting worth millions and millions of dollars? i ask this after reading this story

http://www.suntimes.com/news/world/594716,painting100907.article

Answer 1

Same way anything is atributed a dollar value; it is supply and demand. The 'rareness' factor plays a huge part in the evaluation of original artwork or antiques. The thing about fine art is that it is not just an investment (although usually a very good one) but it is also a way to have something of beauty to look at while your money is 'invested'.

Answer 2

I can tell you exactly how they do it by telling you how the valuers value my art . It's usually a client getting an evaluation a year or two after the purchase when they are updating their insurance, or if they want to resell.

The Valuer phones or emails me and asks me what the painting is now worth (TRULY!) and then they write down whatever I tell them and charge their client a fortune. I've had a number of different, highly respected valuers do exactly this.

I was flabergasted, I could have said any figure I wanted to, luckily I'm honest.

Call me stupid but it seems like a really flawed practise.. however apparently it's the accepted one!

Re the millions of dollars thing, in that case (at auction) the value is determined by what the buyer is willing to pay.

Answer 3

Contemporary works of art are critiqued differently than historic pieces. Today the market of such works is greatly controlled by curators, collectors and gallery owners--they have become arbiters of taste. An 'important' collector today (i.e. Saatchi) has the power to walk into an art school and buy a student work for extravagant amounts of money, as a means of setting a monetary value for that artist. Contemporary galleries today sometimes have buyers sign contracts agreeing to offer the piece back to the gallery before placing it up for auction. They do this to control market value because they are aware that the work doesn't actually have a recognized worth in the common market. Historical works already have a precedent, and therefore the market is completely different. Let's be honest, how does it make any since that we could purchase a Vermeer for less money than Damien Hirst's 'scull'?

Answer 4

Experience.

The compare it to what similar stuff costs or better what some people are willing to pay for some of those paintings. That is why some paintings sell for so much more sometimes as they haven't been sold in 100 years or so and they just don't know and someone goes overboard because they GOT to get it.

It is educated guessing.