Auction houses are growing the art market. Part of the beauty of art auctions stems from the fact that they allow art lovers to simply walk into an auction house, without having to demonstrate their seriousness to a dealer or gallery-owner, bid for a piece of original art and become its owner. Requirement: money. Not required:  referrals, lineage, documentation of existing portfolio, etc. Damien Hirst’s wildly successful auction at which all but five pieces sold marked the first time that original artwork was auctioned without having passed through either a gallery or dealer’s hands. This signals a new level of efficiency and transparency in the art market. And with the increased number of venues for marketing and selling artwork, the argument against first consigning art to high-cost (50% or higher) brick-and-mortar galleries and dealers has acquired a new solidity. 

     Poverty is not the cost of respect in any other industry or endeavor, however, it has seemingly been inculcated as such within the realm of art. Hirst himself refers to the 50% cut taken by galleries as “an extortionate amount of money.”
     

     When Claude Monet hosted the first exhibition open to the public of Impressionist artwork in the 1800’s, in effect circumventing the prevailing juried system, it’s unlikely there were very many cheers from the establishment. However, the exhibition held on the Boulevard des Capucines undoubtedly altered the way that artists’ sold their work.
     

     Under the old dealer/gallery system, a romantic notion was repeated often enough and allowed to codify as a truth, i.e. that artists must suffer to produce good art and that any state other than perpetual poverty for an artist translated to ’selling out.’ Not in any other creative or sports-related endeavor does this fiction exist, and it has survived only because of the prevailing inefficient sales and management structure under which the levers of power were tilted in favor of the middlemen.
     

     In the end, no industry is spared the power of the market - all are eventually mean-reverting. Hirst’s auction represents quite a few miles logged on the road to reversion.
     

 You Know More Than You Think
     One of the things that sets art apart from other investments is the fact that despite the potential for any asset to decline in value, buying what you find beautiful is invariably a profitable strategy when it comes to considering art as an investment. Art is always around us but we often more easily utilize its more digestable forms, i.e. on mugs and such because we trust our taste and know instinctively what we like. 

     The prescription for fear of anything is education, and fear of art is no exception.  You have to do your homework - read art magazines, go to art shows, walk thru  galleries, museums, and use the online price tracking services like Artnet.com, Artprice.com, MutualArt.com, and others. Alternatively, an art advisor can fast forward the process if you don't have the time and wish to feel more confident in your purchase.