How to sell your first $1 MILLION artwork
If you’ve ever heard about Damien Hirst, then you probably heard of what happened in 2008. The British artist took 223 of his newly produced artworks to Sotheby’s, an auction house, and guess what – he sold every f*cking piece. With earning about $200,000,000 in only two days, he broke the record for single artist auctions (previously there were 88 Picasso’s sold for ‘only’ $32 million in 1993) . The wide collection contained many pieces of his stuffed animals’ series, like the famously known Unicorn and many more. The big question I, and probably you are asking is: How did he do this? And how can you do it, too?
Maybe a short disclaimer beforehand. If you are looking for an easy ‚hack‘ to spend only minutes throwing paint at a canvas, afterwards selling it for big cash and then live happily ever after, I might probably disappoint you. As artists like Andy Warhol and Marcel Duchamp famously addressed, the biggest factor for the price of an artwork often isn't quality, or effort – it's branding.
In other words - to sell your first million-dollar artwork, you need two things:
a) Strong market value
b) High demand
STRONG MARKET VALUE
This might seem a little contra intuitive, but for most established artists a surprisingly vast majority of their work goes into creating a strong market value. But before we get into there too deeply, we also must acknowledge that the artists aren’t the one mainly behind it. Don’t take this from me, take it from Don Thompson’s „The $12 Million Stuff Shark“ (link to the book below):
„In a market where information is scarce and not trustworthy, the first rule is that the price level signals the reputation of the artist, the status of the dealer, and the status of the intended purchaser. Prices reflect the size of a work, not its quality or artistic merit. “
So, a first and easy step would be to increase your size. As in general the bigger the work, the more expensive it is. But the biggest variable here is the reputation of the artist. Some guys start their thing and what they do is instantly world famous, but this is not the case for most of us. When a new artist steps into the art market, he or she has no reputation – no branding. So if you’re a newbie, your reputation as an artist heavily relies on the status of the dealer. They are the ones that promote, educate, and help artists to gain fame and success.
Coming back to the stuffed animals, our beloved shark above was sold through art industry giant Charles Saatchi, a businessman, art collector and former gallery owner. Hirst has worked with him since the 1990ies, and after Saatchi saw his work „A Thousand Years“(which is my favorite work of him btw), he commissioned Hirst to do ‚anything he wants‘ for the value of roughly $90,000. Hirst bought the shark from an Australian fisherman for about $11,000 and injected it with tons of formaldehyde. In 2005, it was sold for an impressive $12,000,000 to a hedge Fund manager called Steve Cohen (yes, he is a billionaire). By simply doing the numbers you will see that the value increased by roughly 1300% - only through Saatchi’s reputation as an art dealer.
It makes even more sense if you consider how it was bought. Dealers use selective information to get potential buyers to pay more. An auction as the one mentioned in the beginning happens very rarely. When dealers normally sell work, everything is private - including prices. This gives him the upper hand in pricing, and the real value relies more on the dealer’s reputation who tries making it more valuable to the buyer. (This is why in 1988 NYC tried to change this with the „Truth in Pricing Law“– a law that was eventually resolved because of the harsh protest from the galleries, stating it is „getting in the way of the enjoyment of the exhibition“)
HIGH DEMAND
As the art is traded on a market, the basic laws of economics also apply to the art market. To put it simply, the dealer can raise the price of his works if he creates scarcity. A great example is Jenny Saville – in 1999 was a new emerging British artist, and eventually became associated with Saatchi.
„Some lists arise because of the very limited production of market-savvy artists. When Charles Saatchi acted as patron to Jenny Saville in her early career, he reportedly limited her production-for-sale to six paintings per year. “ ( Don Thompson, 2011)
And guess what, he sold the 6 paintings for $100,000 each.
If we continue to look into the numbers, Artnet estimated that the size of the 2015 global art market was 64 billion US$, mainly comprised by sales in US (43%), China (21%) and the UK (21%). This market is growing, and it’s especially growing outside of traditional gallery sales, mainly in the form of art fairs, auction houses and especially online sales.
Looking at the development ever since the recession in 2009, it seems like the art vendors learned their lesson. The value has increased much higher than the volume, indicating that there are fewer artworks sold for a higher price.
Coming back to our initial question, my advice for you to sell your first million-dollar artwork is to focus on reputation more than anything else. Probably your reputation needs to be even bigger than Hirst’s or Saatchi’s. Admittedly, the dealer model still dominates the fine art world. But for the most of us, selling art online has never been easier. The prices are open and it’s accessible for a broad group of people. And at least you know where to start: Think BIG.
FINAL THOUGHTS
As you’ve hopefully learned, artistic quality isn’t the only thing creating value for your art. Please be also reminded that art serves far more purposes than making money. It is deeply entwined in our culture, history and everyday life. And who knows if the history will remember Hirst’s shark as one of the greatest artworks ever produced by mankind. My intention was to shift your perspective, so that you don’t see your work as a momentary way of gaining money – and rather as time-investment. Investing in a process of defining your skills, representing your history, identity and values will create a work that is associated to your personality. Rather than speaking for itself, it will be something people care about – because they are affected by what you do – valuing your art, both psychologically and financially.
If you want to learn more about the economics of the art market,
you can get Don Thompson's "The $12 Million Stuff Shark" here:
Dan Thompson, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art
Also, shoot me a message – I have tons of other books and ressources for you to dive in.
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