Rebekah Jacob owns the Rebekah Jacob Gallery in Charleston, South Carolina. She represents an international group of emerging and established artists who create paintings, works on paper, photographs, and video. The gallery focuses on modern art and photography of the American South and offers appraisal services to individual and corporate collectors for resale, insurance, estate, bankruptcy, and equitable-distribution purposes.
Jacob works with numerous clients who are building collections around the Civil Rights Movement and/or the African American. She enjoys getting to know her clients well enough to help them choose art they will love.
Rebekah also actively encourages and supports new collectors, whether they are young art enthusiasts or people from around the world who are buying homes in Southern cities such as Charleston and New Orleans.
She says young collectors like the flexible price points of unique, high-quality photographs and other works on paper She believes photography is popular among new collectors because cameras and technology are such a big part of our lives. New collectors also tend to start with works on paper because they can afford to buy more than one piece.
When I asked her about the wisdom of “investing” in art, she said art can be viewed as an investment option, but only if collectors buy smartly, at fair market values, and are patient during the resale process once an official appraisal has been levied.
She points out that many high net-worth individuals have no intention of selling the art they buy. When they fall in love with certain pieces of art, they will either keep it in the family and/or gift it to a museum to make it accessible to art scholars and the public.
If you do want art that might appreciate over time, here are a few suggestions from Rebekah Jacob:
- Find a reputable dealer and work closely with him/her over time.
- Buy the best art work you can afford. Look at the artist’s credentials: publications, exhibitions, gallery representation, and collector base. The more dense the resume of the artist, often, the more solid the investment.
- Realize that fine art is not like gold or another currency. Art is not a commodity in which units can be liquidated quickly. You may have to wait months or even years to find a buyer.
- Keep in mind that art is susceptible to fashion. What may be “hot” today may not be as appealing next year.
- Allocate some of your budget for ongoing expenses related to displaying, preserving, and insuring the art. Stocks and bonds do not need maintenance, but art may require conservation framing, proper lighting and climate control, and specialized storage.
- Watch inflated markets and retail prices. Get a fair deal. Find a dealer qualified to appraise art.
- Be aware that buying and selling art can be expensive, especially if you buy too high. Some auction houses and dealers take as much as 30 percent commission, which can affect your resale value. When art trades hands often, it does not add to the financial value of the piece.
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| Jerry Siegel, Revival Tent, archival pigment print, 16 x 20 inches, signed and editioned |
The exhibition will run from May 21 to July 6, and feature works by Southern photographers such as William Christenberry, Jerry Siegel, Eliot Dudik, Kathleen Robbins, Richard Sexton, Anne Rowland, and Keliy Anderson-Staley.
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| Eliot Dudik, Carew Rice Painting, Road Ends in Water Series, archival pigment print, 24 x 19 inches |
