Is there such a thing as a price guide for paintings sold at auction or other wise?

Question

I'm looking for a price guide of sorts for paintings. I would like to know whether there is an all in one book with perenial information on the value of painters and what their paintings are valued at. Is there such a thing as a painting price guild similar to those for baseball cards, comic books and antiques?

Answer 1

No there is not. You can find selling guides for different auctions, but limited to that auctions. You can find artist listing for particular galleries, but limited to that gallery.
The market you are researching is EXTREMELY complicated and I don't think there are any real rules. The more hype the artist gets the higher his prices go and his prices can drop. It is a risky market unless you have lots of time.

I have paintings I bought 20 to 30 years ago that are finally going up. $25.00/now$1200, $350./now$15,000. $125./now!$1200., $175.now$18,000. etc.

You have to shop well, I like finding new unknown artist and buying early pieces and watch their markets.

But there are simply too many artist out there to have ONE guide.

SORRY.

Answer 2

Yes. It is called a catalog (or catalogue). Most auction houses not only have what they are selling (and expect to get for it) in a catalog but they also have what they sold on record. Those books are available.

Even on-line you can see what objects were sold for but for most sites you need to be logged in.