What Good are Art Dealers?
Nobody likes art dealers. Artists don’t like them because dealers keep half the price of every piece of art they sell. Art buyers, collectors, and investors don’t like them because dealers charge top dollar. (Even dealers don’t like dealers, but that’s another article.) So do art dealers do anything other than inject themselves into art business transactions, jack prices, and extract money from the investment pool? They must do something. Otherwise they wouldn’t be here, would they? Let’s explore. “I buy art, none of it from dealers,” you say. “I don’t waste my hard-earned cash contributing to art gallery extravaganzas. I do my art investing entirely outside the gallery system; art dealers and their galleries get nothing from me. Forget those oversized, high-ceilinged, space-wasting progressions of near empty rooms in expensive parts of town. I know what I like, where to find it, how to spot a good investment, what to pay, and I don’t need any art dealer to tell me different.” Of cours
