Have you ever watched the powerhouse auctions at Christies or Sotheby’s? You know, the ones with the headline making prices where a lot can easily sale for $20 million dollars? I became hooked during the pandemic, when the major auction houses started streaming in real time. It was not just informational but also entertainment. The houses do an excellent job of building anticipation with videos on specific works that detail the provenance. One can also peer into the private lives of the ultra-rich and famous. And if you are like me, I play the auction game. Yes, I am a grown man and I still make up games in my head! It is an easy one that I encourage you to do as well. Basically, I say, “If money was no option, what works would I bid on?” And this frees your mind to simply consider a work unencumbered by the price. It’s funny but I often sit there and say, “Yeah, I wouldn’t even buy that for $1.”  

But dear reader, those us who have misplaced that spare $10 million dollars can still use auctions to build our collections. While the international auction houses are brand names, there are fabulous smaller local/regional auction houses where you can still find a masterpiece. The local houses are definitely more accessible both in terms of prices and building relationships. I also find that a regional auction house often has the inside scoop on their regional artists and art movements and be able to offer insights not readily available from a national house.  Now, don’t get me wrong, you still have to do some research, like art galleries and art fairs, all auction houses are not created equal. To determine the more quality local auction houses, look at their materials. Do they have online catalogues (spoiler alert – they should!)? Do they offer preview showings? Look in the details to see how they list the provenance of a work – that is the work’s record of ownership. What you want to determine is that the auction house is actually doing this research, especially if the works are of substantial value. It may go without saying, but you probably don’t want to buy that “Picasso” with no provenance. Sure, Picasso may have given it to someone’s great grandmother and it took pride of place in her living room for decades and no one ever knew about it…but more likely than not it didn’t. If it is a major work, the experts should know exactly from whence it came. I’ll save the deep dive into provenance for another newsletter because that is an entire history lesson. But for your local auctions, click on the details and that information should be handy.

To keep my collecting juices flowing and let’s be honest, when I’m feeling a bit depressed, I go to my local museum. (I go to the museum for many personal reasons as you will soon find out.) The art usually breaks me out of whatever funk I’m in and I immediately start “collecting.” As I mentioned in a previous newsletter, museums have already done research to help you narrow your eye. But sometimes I get inspired by museums for work that I would not normally collect. For example, our personal collection has several themes including abstract expression, urban or street art, figurative works from the African diaspora, and evocative mid-century modern works. All that to say, I don’t collect Victorian portraits. But, one of my favorite paintings at the Cleveland Museum of Art is the Victorian portrait, Seaside by James Tissot, shown above. So, in the back of my head, I’m always searching for my version of this painting. I’m not going to do that at Christies…yet. (Cause the Universe do provide!) But I will do this at my local auction house where something evoking the same feelings of that painting might be had for a few hundred dollars.

Have you considered?

This week’s deep dive is into our auction experience with Rachel Davis Fine Art in Cleveland, Ohio. This is an auction house founded in 1987 by Rachel Davis with an expert staff from various art world backgrounds both as practitioners, conservators, and gallerists. You can look at their “about” link and see the background of the staff and get a clear picture of what I mean when I say, “look for the experts.” I purchased a few historic prints from the Print Club of Cleveland at a previous auction and was excited for the March Fine Art auction.

The Auction Experience. As mentioned, it is always best to view works in advance if possible. Our preview of the auction drew me to three works, of which one I HAD to add to my collection.

Lot 89: Frank Schaeffer (American, 1917-2008) Oil Painting. For me, the standout piece was an oil painting by Frank Schaeffer (shown above). I collect mid-century work. That era often has work that evokes a melancholy color palate. Also, in my formative years I was exposed to art collections that had very lovely mid-century works in their homes and I always looked to these types of painting as “prime.” Now clearly, these are my own proclivities and that is the beauty of collecting art because it is about what speaks to you.

Lot 104: Claude Bentley (American, 1915-1990) Lithograph. Another work that stood out to me was "Frenzy," a 1947 (numbered 2 of 12) lithograph by Claude Bentley. Bentley’s work is collected by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and he has participated in the Whitney Biennial and had a solo show at the Art Institute of Chicago. This is a “listed” artist, meaning his work has been catalogued and documented and one can generally find market information. From an image standpoint, I was drawn in to the boldness of the print. Just black and white with thin lines if feels alive. I also like that this is a limited number of only 12. For a print, that helps with the value and it was a deciding factor in my decision to bid.

I am happy to say that we won both bids!

Do Consider

• The Print Club of Cleveland’s 40th Fine Print Fair. Free and open to the public. April 24-27, 2025.

• 1:54 African Contemporary Art Fair, NYC. May 8-11, 2025.

• NADA NY 2025 (New Art Dealers Alliance) May 7-11, 2025. 

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