Profits and Prophets

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Profits and Prophets

By Randy Bechtel

Appraising Art Investments
Robert Aichele, a Sacramento State professor of music, began collecting art in the 1960s, when Sacramento artists Wayne Thiebaud, Robert Arneson, Gregory Kondos, Manuel Neri and Roy DeForest began exhibiting. Now retired, Aichele lives in Gold River although he could live anywhere should he sell even part of his collection.
    “He has one of the best collections in the world,” says John Natsoulas, a Davis art consultant and author. “He couldn’t spend in a lifetime the money it would bring.”
    Appraising Aichele’s collection does not require much guesswork. That’s because many of the artists represented in the collection have had works traded on the exchange most revered by dealers and collectors: the auction houses of Christie’s and Sotheby’s. Records of these sales can be found, for the cost of a subscription, at artnet online, the equivalent of the art world’s Big Board. “If you aren’t traded as a commodity on Sotheby’s or Christie’s, you aren’t considered to be in the arena of blue-chip artists,” Natsoulas notes.
    Major works of blue-chip artists command six figures, although, according to a recent study by the New York Times, even a blue-chip artist’s stock can trade down. “Wayne Thiebaud and Robert Arneson have steadily grown, so they’re good investments,” Natsoulas says. “But Jim Dine has gone down, so he may not be.” Another tip: Don’t be too wowed by the word “international.” (Mel) Ramoses sell better worldwide than Thiebauds, but Thiebauds fetch higher prices.
    Of course, like savvy stock market investors, those who reap exponential returns buy “mid-caps” and “small caps.” Mid-caps are usually artists in their 40s or 50s, established in their region and represented by a dealer or dealers out to make the artist nationally known. Buyers looking for potential blue chips are advised by Natsoulas to attend art fairs held in Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago and other major metropolitan areas where dealers from around the world rent booths to the tune of $25,000 to sell works of artists in their stable.

They’ve Gotta Have It
“Then you look for who’s selling. Who’s hot and who’s not,” Natsoulas says. Although you’ll compete against thousands of buyers for artworks ranging from $2,000 to $500,000, more often than not it’s better to compete against thousands for a mid-cap than against a few multimillionaires and billionaires when the same artist turns blue chip. “The rich are like baseball card collectors,” Natsoulas points out. “They don’t buy for investment. They buy because they gotta have it.”
    For those with no time for fairs, the good news is that, judging by recent history, art investors in the region can strike gold in their own backyard. Per capita, the Sacramento Metro Market has produced more blue-chip artists alive today than probably any region outside of New York.
    Indeed, from the 1960s to 1990s, UC Davis was ranked with Yale as the best art school in the country, and Sacramento State the best art school among state colleges in California. Wayne Thiebaud, Gregory Kondos and Art Gonzales are all Sacramento State alums; Mel Ramos and Peter Vandenburg are former faculty there; and Thiebaud, Manuel Neri, Robert Arneson and Roy DeForest taught at UC Davis. First of the next generation to achieve six-figure status was Deborah Butterfield, a UC Davis product whose sculptures of horses range up to $350,000.
    Natsoulas considers the art faculties at Sacramento State and UC Davis to be in a rebuilding process, but “the weirdest thing is that you’ve got very exciting people at city colleges. Yoshio Taylor at Cosumnes River College. Fred Dalkey at Sacramento City College. Good God, Dalkey should be at Stanford.” 
    Taylor and Dalkey, as well as Michael Stevens and Susan Adan, are local mid-career artists Natsoulas likes, “although speaking in terms of investment, we have to wait and see what their value is.” As for identifying up-and-comers, Natsoulas recommends paying attention to who sells best at the annual Crocker Art Auction as well as to artists awarded prizes at the biennial Crocker-Kingsley Exhibition. The juried exhibition is of particular importance, having launched Thiebaud’s career, among others; the last exhibition included Mel Ramos as a juror.
    Of course, those wanting to invest can always consult a dealer, Natsoulas says. But please, he pleads, don’t play nouveau riche. “You get these people who say, ‘I got a BMW. I got a Mercedes. I saw this (painting) at someone’s house. I want one.’ You have to explain the painting was done in 1955. This is 2006. The artist will not make another one.”

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