Find prices for fine art, design & decorative works and determine their market value. The Price Database is the essential tool for art world professionals. Subscribe here.
- Custom Analytics Reports
Gain Insighs Into The Art Market
Get A Custom Art Market Report
- Reports on Art Trends.
Track the value of your collection,
from over 340,000 art companies
- Art Auctions
Find the best prices for your art.
Browse, compare & buy today!
- Art Market Trends
Track the value of the art market.
Manage the value of your collection
- Custom Analytics Reports
Search results
Sell your pictures and prints in our forthcoming Fine Art Auctions. Get a free art valuation from our Picture Specialist today. We offer auction estimates online or by phone 01460 73041, without obligation.
Discover the value of fine art, design, and decorative artworks with the most complete illustrated archive of auction results. View and sort millions of lots by sale date, estimate, sold price, auction house, collecting category, and more.
- How to Find Out About Your Old Painting
- How to Research and Appraise Antique Art
- How to Identify An Original Watercolour Versus A Print
- How Can I Tell If My Picture Is A Genuine Oil Painting?
- How Can I Appraise Or Value A Print?
- How Much Is My Unsigned Black and White Print Worth?
- Could The Frame Be Valuable?
- What Is An Etching and Are They Valuable?
- How to Appraise A Painting and Identify The Artist
- What Is A Pastel and Can They Be Valuable?
If you are reading this article, there's a good chance that you may have a treasured old painting at home you've owned for years. Alternatively, you might be curious about something you have inherited or found in a thrift store, charity shop, car boot sale, or junk shop. Maybe you have a work of art lying unwanted in the attic or garage or stashed ...
First, make sure it an original rather than a copy or a print. Examine the piece with a magnifying glass to determine whether it was painted or printed. If the surface is made up of tiny regular do...Use an online image search or reverse image search to check whether your painting is a copy of an existing artwork. Good quality painted copies are often worth more than prints.If it is a print, it may still be worth something. Certain limited edition prints are worth more than normal prints. A quick check for similar items on eBay and liveauctioneers.com might be helpful.To identify the artist, look for a signature, initials, or monogram. There are a number of online resources with artist signatures for comparison.Many years ago, I bought a picture from a junk-sale believing it to be a valuable watercolour. In fact, it was only a print, but it was a very good one. To an inexperienced eye, a good quality print is often very difficult to tell from a watercolour painting, but there are some easy clues. 1. Gently clean the glass with a soft cloth, using a tiny a...
An oil painting can be created on board, canvas, panel, paper, or even ivory.Because they tend to be more durable and less delicate than watercolours, they are not often behind glass.A well executed oil painting will usually have a feeling of depth and often a softness about it that is the result of the paint being built up in layers known as "glazes." Modern print techniques h...If you are still uncertain, examine the frame and backing for clues. A good quality oil painting will usually have an equally good quality frame. Older frames are often extremely heavy, especially...If you have a limited edition print by a well-known artist, it will often (though by no means always) have a greater value than a genuine painting by an unknown artist. Limited edition prints will...If you suspect you have such an undiscovered gem you should try to get an expert opinion. The earliest prints were usually either black and white, or sepia in colour, and these can be some of the m...The earliest prints were made using a raised surface which could be inked. These typically included wood block prints, which are generally far cruder and more simplistic than modern lithographic, o...Many early Japanese prints were created using the woodcut process, and these are highly collectible, even if the signatures are difficult for Western eyes to understand. Woodcuts were popular throu...Early prints come in many different guises. If your print is signed and is by a well-known artist, it may well be valuable. Equally, even if it is unsigned but is of an interesting subject, such as a political cartoon, it may well be of interest to a specialist collector. There are collectors who look out for pictures of all sorts of niche subjects...
Sometimes old prints come in very good quality frames, and these can also have a value. It is always worth having them checked out. The print itself might be worth very little, but a lovely old maple frame, for example, can often fetch enough to make your efforts worthwhile. The best places to sell a good quality frame are to an antique dealer, thr...
Etching is a specialised form of print-making. A metal plate is first given an acid-resistant coating. An image is then scratched into this coating using needles, and the plate is submerged into an acid bath. The coating resists the acid except where the image has been scored through. The acid is able to eat the metal in the scratched-out areas, le...
Once you've checked that your picture is definitely not a print of a more saleable original, it might pay to do some further research. The most obvious avenue is to start by finding out who the art...Many artists use their initials, or even a monogram, in place of a full signature. There are good reference books available showing facsimiles of many thousands of signatures, and you might find on...Once you have an idea who the painter is, you can research past sales of the artist's work. A short list of artists' monograms is available online, and some artists' signatures may be seen online a...If you are able to identify the surname of the artist but don't have a first initial, try comparing your painting with the work of other artists with the same surname by entering the name and the w...Pastel is a pure powdered pigment mixed with a binding agent. It is used in the form of a stick or a pastel pencil. The pigments used to produce pastels are exactly the same as those used in any coloured art media, from watercolours to oil paints, and consequently pastels often produce very intense, vibrant colours. Pastels have been around since a...
Our Price Database makes it easy to search past and upcoming auction prices for over 783,000 artists, and provides artist performance charts, as well as detailed market analysis, tracking the performance of artworks by category, medium, artist nationality, and sale location.
- The MutualArt Price Database can be accessed by anyone with Premium or VIP membership, which starts from just $39 per month – giving you unlimited...
- MutualArt displays past auction prices, exhibition listings, upcoming auction information and featured articles on over 713,000 artists – from old...
- MutualArt provides decision support tools for anyone assessing the value of art. Our Price Database makes it easy to search past and upcoming aucti...
- Become a Premium or VIP Member to gain unlimited access to MutualArt’s Price Database, plus a host of other benefits. Both our Premium and VIP Memb...
How to find the value of fine art in 3 easy steps. Check the list of valuable fine art sold at auction, lookup the value in the auction archives, and request a free appraisal or your original paintings, drawing and sculptures.
Search among 849,900 artists and 17,443,100 sale prices since 1987, including 1,228,100 lots listed over the last 12 months, from 7,200 auction houses around the world.
Meet your new art advisor. Unlimited access to millions of auction results—for free. The Artsy Price Database is a collector’s best resource for art market data.