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How did Picasso change art?

How does one put a value on art? On what basis is a Van Gogh or Picasso priced in the millions of dollars?

  • I have read since long time that art is also viewed as an investment. But how does one come to decide on the price of a given  piece of art. Different people have a different tendency towards art. Some are unable to appreciate fine arts. And most of the artists life have been romanticised as having achieved fame posthumously. So how does one valuate art monetarily ? Why do a few art pieces evaluated at  millions of dollars while majority are not even worth the canvas they  are painted on ? How does one decide that a said piece of art is say $245 million ?

  • Answer:

    I'm not quite sure I understand this question. The easiest way to find out what a piece of art is worth, is quite simply to sell it, for example at an auction. It's worth whatever you get for it. And indeed this is one common way of selling art. If you are selling many similar pieces of art you can of course guesstimate the price by comparing to what people were willing to pay for the other pieces. No different from putting a monetary value on any other object, really.

Eivind Kjørstad at Quora Visit the source

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Only the buyer decides what a painting is worth.  Only one buyer can own the painting, and they decide how much they will pay for it. If no buyer comes forward with $245 million dollars, then the painting isn't worth it.  So the answer to your question is simply that the painting itself is not worth anything.  Only when two competing buyers want that painting A LOT, then they each top the other's price. If both buyers decide to keep their money, the value of the painting goes back down to zero. In the case of Picasso and other famous artists, there are not just two buyers, but a long list of others who are waiting with money in hand for a painting that falls in their budget.  All these waiting buyers are quite convinced that the painting is worth $X to them.  It is sort of a global illusion of value, or delusion if you feel cynical about it.

Viola Yee

Art is no different than anything else that is bought or sold; it is worth whatever someone is willing to trade for it. Some works of art, or artists, are recognized as being of exceptional quality, or have wide popular appeal, and this makes them worth more; not because of any inherent value, but because the pieces are more likely to be easily traded given the higher level of interest in owning them.

Jason MacDonald

The market price of anything, not just art, is what a buyer's willing to pay for it. If you want to delve deeper, this is the same reason why certain footballers are paid millions upon millions, while those who are slightly less skilled languish in obscurity are paid pennies. Or more often, pay to even play. It's economics. At a certain point in almost any field, towards the top, a slight increase in skill and fame will result in disproportionate rewards. That's because there are only so many Van Goghs- or so many van Persies- what is being offered is just so incredibly rare it can command those prices. Thank you for the A2A, Vidyasagar. :)

Xu Beixi

Supply is only one piece of a given picture,whereas buyers are say 100000 in world( assumption ),so supply demand equation works. Older the picture fetches higher value , so it works as a Antique collection It's amazing  painting value goes high when painter is no more. In short it can't produce by same hand

Anil Jogia

Simple supply and demand. Demand is caused by general critical consensus.

Dan Webster

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