| rev:text
| - For disclosure I am banned by the owner from buying or selling due to upheld complaints I made regarding the sale of fakes. With that in mind, I shall try to be cynically objective as I have more than 20 years in the art business and have purchased and sold at auction in the US and Europe.
Basic overview:
J. Levine's in a mid third tier auction house. (1st - Sothebys/Christies, 2nd Doyle, Hineman/ Bonhams, 3rd regional general auction houses). They hold monthly estate auctions and the occasional specialist auction.
Selling at J. Levine's:
With any auction appraisal ensure that a specialist in the area of items you are selling is sent out. Sadly, on their web-site they do not list employees and their specialties, and they refer to "Our educated and professional sales team" - no mention of certified appraisers/experts. With any auction, do not release items until a full list with estimates is signed and given over to you. They do not have a sample contract on their site, but commission rates run as high as 50% on lower priced items. If selling lots of items or high end pieces negotiate the commission rate.
Estimates - you have the ability to check their estimates against items sold at auction through such sites as liveauctioneers, invaluable, artnet, and for even common items ebay. One of the complaints you see about Levine's is people complaining about pennies on the dollar: one insurance value is very different to auction value, but also Levine's generally open the bidding at 25% of the low estimate (so if they told you an item is $400-600, they start the bids at $100 and will sell no matter if only 1 bid). Most auctions start at 50% if not 80% of the low estimate. Check when they do the appraisal if they have a fiduciary duty, and where possible insist on a reserve for an item.
Depending on the time of year, try to avoid selling in the summer months - especially larger non-shippable items, as for obvious reasons Scottsdale is rather quiet.
Finally, take photos of all items and their condition when they leave your possession.
Buying from Levine's:
Like selling, do your research - google image search is a good start. Bluntly, and will assume due to lack of staff, too many items of dubious provenance are sold. A few examples include a Calder litho (10.2.14 lot1178), which his foundation clearly state is a fake; a Diego Giacometti chair; Chagall pieces, Willem De Kooning etc. Please note my area is art but have also been informed about "bad watches/native jewelry" etc.
They stipulate an as-is auction format, this does not actually have the gravitas that you think it has. You have the ability to claim through your card, complain to the National Auctioneers Association and the AZ AG - plus 12 months after "fraud" is detected in AZ with the courts.
Due to the low opening, and careful research some bargains can be found - sadly at the expense of the seller. A good example is Dali untitled (12.17.15 lot 3131) sold for $6500, against an estimate of $400-600. A quick google image search gives its title as "Cosmic Rays and soft Watches", with an average auction price of circa $14,000 and retail of $40,000.
In conclusion, do your homework as a seller to ensure you get accurate quotes (other auction houses have reps in the area including Sothebys/Christies/Leslie Hindman) as Levine's seem to drop the ball. As a buyer, research and ask question and get the answers in writing.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)