Snap up art at a discount

''We were really trying to think of ways to make buying art from us easier,'' said Jane Young (above), manager of the Chase Gallery. (David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)
By Geoff Edgers
Globe Staff / February 25, 2009

For months, painter Robert John Cook gloomily gazed at the unsold work hanging on the walls of his Cape Cod gallery, Mayflower Studio in Yarmouth. With the Dow diving, nobody seemed willing to slap down a thousand dollars for one of his color-splashed landscapes.

But instead of wallowing, the artist took action. He slashed his prices in half and suddenly, buyers emerged. One woman bought a half dozen of his oil paintings in a recent show.

"Yes, people are holding the dollar tight today," said Cook, 52. "But what if you make it so you can't say no? And 50 percent off a painting they'd been looking at a few times, that's good."

It's hardly a surprise that gallery hopping has slowed during the recession. People are focused more on the necessities of life and less on what some might call extravagances. But for collectors, who see paintings and sculptures as both culturally important as well as an investment that will increase in value, the downturn is presenting a rare opportunity.

Like the stock market, the art market is resetting itself after years of virtually unchecked growth. That means works once snatched up immediately are now available. Newcomers can learn more about a piece before taking the plunge. And everyone is getting lower prices.

"It's a great time to buy art, and it's going to get even better," says Lisa Schiff, a New York art consultant for several Boston collectors. "The prices are still falling. We haven't hit the bottom yet, but we're getting close."

On Newbury Street, they're slashing prices and, in the case of one gallery, offering a special "no interest, no money down" deal to prospective buyers. In auction houses, the works of big-name artists are being sold for millions less than they fetched just a few months ago. And instead of fighting to gain access to hot, young artists, collectors are able to think through potential purchases over multiple gallery visits and even meet the creators themselves. Similar to what's happened in the housing market, works that wouldn't have lasted a night during the art boom now hang on walls for weeks.

That's good news for those who not only view art as culturally essential but as an investment. While art values declined over 2008, they decreased less (4.5 percent) than the Standard & Poor's 500 index (37 percent), according to the Mei Moses fine art index codeveloped by Michael Moses, a professor of management at New York University's Stern School of Business.

Over the last 20 years, stocks have outperformed art slightly, his study showed, but over the last five years, art values grew on average almost 20 percent a year, far exceeding stocks.

"Is the art market less frothy than it was six months ago? Absolutely," said Moses. "Is this the bottom of the market? I don't know. History tells us that there have been periods where art markets have declined for more than six months or a year. An investor might want to be cautious."

That depends on what you want to buy.

If you're looking for a Jeff Koons, a piece recently sold at Christie's in London for $2 million - about half of what a work by the artist sold for at a Sotheby's auction last November. (Overall, Christie's reported that worldwide sales were down 11 percent in 2008.) If you're looking for something less expensive, Barbara Krakow's Newbury Street gallery has made works in a current show, "Missing," more affordable.

That includes pieces by Michelangelo Pistoletto (dropped from $40,000 to $24,000), Barbara Broughel (from $16,000 to $12,000), and Yayoi Kusama from $6,500 to $4,500).

Though there has been a slowdown, many collectors are continuing to acquire art. Mario Russo, the Boston stylist who sits on the board of the Institute of Contemporary Art, bought a Julian Opie work from Krakow in the fall. And he's planning on going to The Armory art fair in New York next month.

"Right now, it's sort of a time that it's very uncertain and nobody quite knows what prices really are," said Russo, who said he will abide by a buying budget but continue making purchases. "But it's easy to tell what good work is if you know the artist and, for me, this very well might be a good time to start buying things."

To entice buyers, galleries aren't just dropping prices. At Chase Gallery, also on Newbury Street, buyers can purchase art the way they might buy a washing machine at Sears. The gallery struck a deal with GE Finance to insure sales, paying the company $75 a month for a policy. But there is one catch: If the purchase is not paid off after a year, a 16 percent interest rate kicks in.

"We've always offered payment plans," said gallery manager Jane Young. "People could pay over two months or three months and this just seemed like a natural progression. We were really trying to think of ways to make buying art from us easier."

Still, some gallery owners frowned on the idea of letting such expensive pieces walk out the door for so little down, especially during these times.

"I don't think people should buy what they can't afford," said Zach Feuer, a School of the Museum of Fine Arts graduate who has become one of New York's most respected dealers of young artists' work. "That's just what the world needs, more credit and debt."

Feuer hasn't cut prices at his gallery though he has been finding sales slower. His current show features Justin Lieberman, a conceptual artist whose most recent work features objects - including baseball cards, magazines, and records - coated with thick, acrylic resin. Lieberman's last exhibition sold out in a week. Seven weeks after the opening of his current show, Feuer has four of 11 pieces available.

"This is not a bad thing," said Feuer. "What we saw in the last few years was that collectors who were aggressive and newer were the most dominant. Now, collectors who haven't been able to buy art for a while are coming back."

On a recent weekday, Beth Marcus, a Boston collector, visited a handful of galleries and did a studio visit with one artist. She didn't buy a thing - yet.

"During the boom time, you had to make decisions faster and it didn't give you the time to really consider a work of art. This is a wonderful time to learn and think before you spend money."

Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers@globe.com.
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