Our life goes by next to paintings
Who does not have a rectangular or an oval or a circle hanging on the walls of his own house? It can be a painting, a drawing, an engraving or a photograph, the walls of our houses are not left bare, mute but carry the signs and the memories of our life. Art, from the graffiti in the caves, has the task of leaving signs of men on earth, his actions, his passions and his memory. And this function hasn’t changed, actually, we could also say that it did not get lost even in the cuts of a canvas, or in the kids with balloons on the walls of a city.
Therefore, the walls of our houses are decorated by our past, enclosed inside the frames. A painting bought in the sign of love, the portrait of a relative, an inherited still-life, a landscape that reminds us of our origins, an abstract painting that we do not know if it is hanged in the correct sense, a sacred engraving, the drawing of some Roman ruins or an entire collection of 18th century views. It could be an endless list.
The necessity to alienate a painting
But those walls, sooner or later, impose on us solutions to situations created by life. Sometimes, there is the need to empty them and take the paintings away, either to change houses or because of a necessity to sell or again because it does not represent us anymore. Otherwise, we could have received paintings as a gift or inheritance…how do we understand those paintings? How do we interrogate the paintings? Which is their story?
Who does give value to a painting?
To have a reply it is necessary to talk to a professional, an expert of paintings, an antique dealer. For a correct survey, the first way, the preferred one, is our memory, oral or written. Which is the memory of the author of the painting and maybe the date of the purchase and the seller. In this way, it will be easy for the antiquarian to use this information to obtain a reply that can confirm or not the author and the value of the work. Even better if this information is written on an authenticity certificate, an accredited evaluation or a publication in an authoritative text.
In the case there should not be traces either in the memory nor written, it is the job of the antiquarian to proceed with all the possible research. If the work is not signed and does not present clear indications, the antiquarian will have to establish the epoch of the painting, study the style and individuate the artistic ambit and find, where possible, the author.
How do you give value to a painting?
Now it is the moment to give economic value to the painting. Unfortunately, the painting needs to be undressed from all the affective values and analysed following specific parameters. Importance of the artist, pleasantness of the subject, artistic quality, conservational state, dimensions. It seems to be a simple process that could be defined as clear and distinct, to Cartesian axis proof. Actually, a correct valuation of a painting is obtained after years of study, after gaining experience with thousands of paintings and authors of different epochs.
The antiquarian has to be always updated on the choices of the market, the trends and the most successful works. Therefore, experience but sensitivity too. A specific talent is needed, an intuition that is able to comprehend the beautiful and the well-made.
Our team is at your disposal for valuations, opinions, estimations, advice on paintings of any epoch. We are strong in our experience, with our presumption due to a past rich in continuous research but also with the humbleness of who knows that art is a subject that you learn every day.
