Sell Art Online

John McLaughlin 1955 oil on belgian linen painting

Dilemma





I’m preparing to send my youngest to college. Money has been tight, as is for everyone on the planet after the crash in 2008. For the past seventeen years I have been the sole provider for my children.



In order to achieve great things for my family I plan to downsize my big old house that requires constant repairs. Grey Gardens I sometimes think of my home. I hope to sell next year and move into something about twenty percent of the size of my current digs.



I sold this painting on the Internet. It is from my collection of Hard Edge paintings, a few Abstract Expressionist American paintings and American Modern paintings. The painting is by John McLaughlin. It is fondly called “Grey” 1955.



The pickle is:



The company who helped sell it “ArtBrokerage” has the money in full but wants me to ship the painting three thousand miles without paying me. In order to protect myself I sent them a contract spelling out the conditions which I would part with the painting. I asked that they pay for my insurance company to provide a rider specific for this to ship, they pay the taxes due, release the funds to me on the day it ships and that I arrange and pay for the shipping.



They asked me to, “trust the process.”



Meanwhile I don’t know much about ArtBrokerage excepting what they have on the internet. They are incorporated in Nevada.



When I questioned their process ArtBrokerage came back with some reasonable statements.



“The Chinese make excellent fakes. This protects the collector.”



I highly doubt that anyone would venture to create a fake of a little known painter who didn’t make that many pieces during his lifetime. But perhaps they have a point.



I countered with, “have some expert come look at it in person, or skpye with me and I can show you all sides.”



They complained,” that the painting could be in poor condition. The photograph shows a light in the middle.”



I took a couple more images and close ups. The flash in the middle is from my iphone3 . I warranted that the painting doesn’t have a flash in the middle but is fifty years old and does have crackling or crazing in the paint which is usual for this artist’s work. The additional images satisfied ArtBrokerage but then she came up with this statement:



“The collector is allowed forty eight hours to settle in with the purchase and they could return it.”



“No, wait, I don’t recall anything about allowing someone to hold this a couple weeks ( the crating and shipping take time) while I am without possession, and without being paid. They could send it back damaged. I know this as I loaned a painting to a museum in New York. The painting was returned after an exhibition with the crate punctured and the painting damaged. The Frick only wanted to cover the insurance to restore painting. I never loaned artwork after that again.



ArtBrokerage budged and wants to pay for and organize the shipping without telling me the destination. This leaves me with the same feeling of leaving fifty thousand dollars on the counter in a bus station.



Mulling the choices in my mind- Do I rent a car and drive one hundred hours to Michigan with the painting? Will I find myself stuck in some snow bank outside of Denver? I can’t find cheap nonstop flights. The painting would not be guaranteed to fly with me on the same flight. I found an intermediary –an art restorer in Michigan but I don’t know her but from my Google search. I could pay to ship to her and ask her to hold then possibly release or return the painting at a cost of about four thousand dollars. I even looked into taking a train. The train takes four days one way.



OR do I throw my hands up and trust a bunch of strangers?



Somewhere in the grey area of the decision process is a solution.



Update to my true story:

I asked ArtBrokerage to supply insurance for shipping showing me as the loss payee. After three discussions they emailed a general policy statement from UPS, not what I asked for. Would an insurance company would pay someone for a loss of something they don't own? This is after I discussed my discomfort with shipping by UPS. UPS is fine for sending things that don't break.