For Art's Sake-1

Investing in art is a long-term project, so collectors should only buy what they love.

...Every collector also likes to have their art appreciate in value. But an artwork’s true value, beyond its importance in the larger art community and how rarely it appears on the market, is how desirable it is – the work’s aesthetic dividend.

Since the economy crashed in 2008, the Irish fine art and antiques market has experienced a flight to quality and search for safe-haven status. The most significant trends are the fall in value of both modern art and antique furniture.

Despite the startling prices being achieved for abstract modern and contemporary art at international auctions, Irish taste remains traditional and conservative. Auction results suggest the art that continues to be most highly sought after is traditional and representational, particularly landscapes of the west of Ireland, pastoral scenes, portraits and still lifes.

Although Ireland is becoming more urbanised and cosmopolitan by the day, a rural idyll – featuring nostalgia-infused motifs such as thatched and whitewashed cottages, farmyards, fishing harbours, horses, sheep and cattle, crossroads, cloud-flecked skies, blue mountains, bogs, rivers and lakes – still exercises a powerful hold over the national imagination.

It may look like a fancy teapot,  but the owner found it had a secret hidden inside:  the teapot disassembled into everything needed to perform various Jewish rites and holidays

Linda Bauer and Nello Barbieri, “Forming a Collection of Paintings in Late Baroque Siena,” Journal of the History of Collections 25 (2013): 45-57

...The documents include the names of artists – many well known – with prices or values for some works, and by reference to the largely unpublished inventory of his estate, give some indication of which works in the documents Biringucci acquired and how his taste conformed to the prevailing trends of the period.