PS the antiques store guy got them at a bankruptcy auction and didn‘t have any other information on them.

I would contact Sothebys. (You can also go to their upcoming auction or Chinese

Art offerings to search the name of your artist. Good Luck!

https://www.sothebys.com/en/sell

Sotheby's and the other major houses have high minimums for consigning material. Your best bet is to search online for small Asian art dealers who might be interested, or think about offering them on eBay.

“Sotheby's and the other major houses have high minimums for consigning material”

Yes they do. If they show interest, after emailing photos, Robo will know if she may have something of value. it can be an excellent first step in the process of selling.

Chinese Art is still being bought by an audience that the major auction houses reach.

At that estimated price point, I'd avoid Sotheby's IMHO.

Are you trying to sell or are you trying to establish a value first with an eye to selling later?

If you know the value or know what you would take for them, what about Chairish or 1st Dibs? There’s always Ebay.

With the large Chinese population in Toronto, you might find a buyer or a dealer there.

“At that estimated price point, I'd avoid Sotheby's IMHO.”

There was a time when everything they cosigned was in the high 5 figures. Then they started selling sneakers and many other items, including art, in ”Buy Now“ categories that are priced in the hundreds.

With only the cost of sending a photo by email a ”we’d like more info” or a ”sorry, not interested at this time” response would be a good start to gathering information.

Iirc tho commission is 20 pct plus fees

Thanks everyone for the info! This has been interesting to learn! I started small/easy with a local antique store I know and trust.

But I think I will send an email to Sotheby’s as well - just in case! But I don’t think they are high value enoughX

Buyer’s premium total is added after the selling amount is set at the auction. That can be 20% (or 25% ?) of the actual selling price and charged to the Buyer.

Last year the Seller’s premium was still 10%. Maybe that has changed?

At the major houses, the buyer's premium starts at 25% and goes down as the prices rise: https://www.sothebys.com/1-february-2021-buyers-premium.pdf. 

The consignor's fee varies. Here's Christie's verbiage:

Christie’s charges a single Seller’s Commission rate for the services we provide. The commission is calculated on each item as a fixed percentage based on the eventual hammer price at auction. This rate includes marketing costs and insurance cover (except for Wine sales, where marketing and insurance are charged separately). If your item sells for over the high estimate we agree with you, there will also be an additional 2% Performance Commission fee.

@robo (z6a), if you do contact Sothebys it may take a few weeks to hear back from them. We got lucky and were contacted within a few days.. a successful seller (friend) the first contact back was almost a month.

I have a feeling these are not “get that lady on the phone, stat!” Quality 😀

But this is all super interesting, thank you! I feel like I’m on a mini antiques road show.

Did you buy them because you like them? They are nice! Get the others and hang them up. :P

From what I understand certain galleries can specialize in different types of art. when my dad decided to sell one of my grandparents paintings he found a gallery that specialized in that type of painting (Hudson Valley in this case) they gave him an estimated price it would sell at auction for and it ended up selling for much more. This was an auction place in Connecticut.

Like everything, the right price is what the buyer will pay in the location and timeframe you prefer. So right now, the right price is $40.

I know people who were trying to find an auction house to take furniture from a residence that was in AD. Only one lessor auction house in their afluent area would take anything, and they didn’t take it all.

So if you like them, keep them. If you might want to sell, check what this artists’ work has sold for on eBay in North America and use that to decide what to do next.

Just out of curiosity I did submit an online appraisal form to Sotheby’s! My guess is they will put an estimate of about $500-1000 on the better painting which means it would be cost prohibitive to ship to sell. Hey, you never know!

My local antique store is not interested as the paintings are too new (1980s). They only stock pre-1950. Did I mention not a big market here??

Whats the artist’s name?

Ren Boyan, a minor Shanghai based illustrator from what I can Google.