![[Skip to content (Access key 's')]](/p.gif){kind=small}
What makes art valuable
digital fine-art list / 2003
These are the factors that I think influence people when buying art. I've listed them in descending order of importance.
| Artist | Who did it? (A small cheap pencil-drawing found at a second-hand shop by Van Gogh when he was 10 will be perceived very valuable only because of the artist) |
|---|---|
| Exclusivity | How many exist? Is it a one-off? 10s, 100s, 1000s or more? |
| Direct contact | Did the artist have direct contact with the paper (e.g., did they apply paint to it) or in the printing process (hand-made wood block from which a unique print was made) |
| Size | How big is it? (The bigger the better.) |
| Medium | Oil, pastel, watercolour, acrylic, pencil, digital |
| Effort | How long did it take to make? Five seconds, five years? |
| Skill | How skilled the artist is in the chosen medium |
| Venue | Where it's being sold - an art gallery or an outdoor fair |
| Price | How much is it? Higher the price, higher the perceived value |
| Rarity | Is the artist still alive and producing works or is this one of a limited set of works? |
| Artistic merit | Is it a good picture? |