Risky business

“So you pay a grand for a painting from an unknown artist’s studio. If you are a serious collector, taking a risk, you increase the value of the work by just buying it… If you are a cheap serious collector, you try to get a discount on account of this… If you wait until she has a good reviews, you are going to pay more still… If you wait until… MOCA notices her work, you are going to pay even more… And, if you wait until everybody wants one, then of course, you are going to pay a whole hell of a lot more, since as demand approaches ‘one’ and supply approaches ‘zero’, prices approach infinity. But you are not paying for art… You are paying to be sure, and assurance (or insurance if you will) is very expensive, because risk is everything, for everybody in the domain of art.”
Dale Hickey quoted in Owning Art: The contemporary art collector’s handbook, Louisa Buck and Judith Greer.