Everyone has to live somewhere, right? That includes famous people, artists in particular. Wherever these folks live there are organizations in their towns having fundraisers and they are calling upon them to donate their work. Until the Internet age, a person in Connecticut would have no way of buying the donated art from a fundraiser in Illinois. But now, if you know about the auction, you can click on a link and bid or buy. While I could not find a clearinghouse that lists all of the art auctions for non profits at any given time, I’m sure there will be one soon if there wasn’t one already.
But now, many of these organizations put their auctions online. For example, the Riverside Arts Center in Riverside, IL, has an art auction as part of their fundraiser. Because there are quite a few well-known artists in that community, they get great donations. On these sites, there is usually a Buy It Now button if you don’t want to take the chance at the actual auction and you will still get the art for well under its stated value.
My interest in buying art for a steal was peaked when I lived in Mendham, NJ. The Mendham Borough Library was having a book and art sale one year and I was intrigued. My two favorite things, books and art, for sale in the same place! There are quite a few artists that were affiliated with the library and I’m sure were happy to support the cause by donating paintings. As I recall, I put some bids on the silent auction sheets. I was the only bidder on some of the them and got the pieces for a song. Most of the people were going there to buy books, not art.
While I did feel fortunate to pick up these pieces, I was concerned that they were basically given away, which served neither the artist nor the library, just me. I was fairly young and the bidding sheets didn’t lend themselves to overbidding and I didn’t think to bid a fair price for the art. I was excited to get the lowest price. I now realize that had I paid a fair price, both the library and the artist would have benefited and I wouldn’t feel bad every time I look at the painting.
There have been many articles written on this topic. Some artists have given away, in one year, more art than they sell. Some unscrupulous buyers turn around and sell them on the open market for a profit.
I have donated items over the years to various organizations. In one situation, I donated a piece to the Mendham Junior Women’s Club bi-annual fundraiser, an event that I was also attending. It caused me great stress wondering if the item would sell. I began to wonder what they would do with the piece if it didn’t sell. It did sell, thankfully.
Another time, I donated a piece that was fairly valuable and found that the auction organizers had put it in a “gift basket” with a bunch of other items. I don’t even know if the person saw the beautiful art work in there with the bottles of wine. While I was happy to support the organization, I was offended that my piece was so cavalierly treated.
I have also been in charge of a children’s art portion of a big fundraiser. It was an enlightening experience. Each class at my kids’ elementary school created collaborative art projects to be auctioned. They didn’t sell well. Since this was not always part of the biennial fundraiser, not everyone knew about it. The work was put in a place with low visibility so there was not much traffic. To top off an already bad night, I watched a person turn over the bidding sheet after the auction was closed and add their bid.
Right now, because the Artist-Museum Partnership Act never passed in congress, an artist who donates his or her work can only deduct the cost of the materials (but not the time) to make the work or the market value. If the artist regularly sells work for $2000, this amount cannot be deducted. This makes it very unattractive for any artist to donate artwork to a museum or charity. But they still do it because they are generous, kind people.
The Riverside Arts Center does a nice job of taking care of its donating artists. The RAC showcases each donated art piece on line and in a catalog. They give each donating artist a free ticket to the gala (a $75 value). This is gives collectors and opportunity to chat with the artist whose work they are buying. The RAC also lets the artist know who bought the piece and for how much. If everyone realized that while it’s really cool to get a great bargain on good art, it’s more important to give as much as you can to the charity throwing the fundraiser.