innonimatu
the resident Cassandra
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2006
- Messages
- 15,069
"Valuable" is subjective. Take my grandmother's paintings, for example. I happen to find them valuable because of a combination of reasons. Would a museum find them valuable? I have no idea. A local one would find them more valuable than a larger, farther-away one, because the museums around here prefer art pertaining to local(ish) places, pioneer life, local natural history, etc. Most of her paintings are of places in Alberta or British Columbia, some of which I've been to, some of which my father has been to.
Btw, you realize that Highlander is a 1990s science fiction/historical adventure series, right? It's not a documentary.
And a well done one, the kind of which I miss.
Valuation of art is certainly subjective. I was just pointing out that generally speaking (there will always be exception to find) it isn't rarity but workmanship (and conservation) that determines value in the antiques business. "Quality" is much more often a pre-requisite for interest than rarity.
At the "top of teh market" rarity can even work against a body of art being valued commercially - or critically. Make this thought experiment: imagine Tiziano had a twin brother who pained as well as he did but only one work survived. Signed with an otherwise unknown name, and no one knew he was Tiziano's twin. It sits in some museum together with other lose works: "unknown" painter (because he has no body of work to his name), late renaissance north italian. No one wants to study its workmanship but for comparison with the venetian school, some wonder if it's by an an apprentice of Tiziano. It is of the utmost rarity (sole work identified for that painter), of equal craftsmanship to the worlks of a great master... but its uniqueness prevents it from being present in famous museums or private collections. There's only one of it. It misses the opportunity for fame, and is worth less than a Tiziano - because its is rarer.
But I digress, sorry. It's just that I long found the art world, and the way values are attached to stuff (both in the past and now), quite funny in its own and for what it shows of people's behaviour.