How to Buy Reproduction Paintings as an Investment

People often believe that investing in art is only for the very rich. But there's a part to the art investment market that's open to the rest of us - it's the market that deals in reproduction paintings.

A printed copy of a painting will have no value other than what you pay for the print quality. Reproduction paintings on the other hand are real paintings. They are real paintings done by skilled artists, who will get the original and try to reproduce it by hand. They are artistic works, and they have worth.

If you love art, investing in reproduction paintings could be for you. But you do have to make sure that you know what you’re doing. Here are a few areas where you could make mistakes, and how to steer clear of them.

When you don't have that much experience in art appreciation, you can often let your enthusiasm run away with you. If you find that there's a particular artist whose work you have felt appreciation for in the past, it's only natural that you would right away overgeneralize and think that all whatever that artist makes is probably good as gold.

It never works out that way. No matter what kind of artist it is that your thinking of, artists have limited capacity for great work. Make sure that you study each piece of art closely before you put any money down for it. Investing in reproduction paintings may be easier than investing in real paintings. But it still does involve skill.

And you really do have to be serious about studying the painting you buy. To look at the thumbnail will not do. You have to make sure you understand what the painting is about, or you need to read somewhere about what it might be worth.

Reproduction paintings are often made and sold by companies that employ skilled artists. Basically, you really need to know a company to make sure that they are good at what they do. Reproduction paintings need to really be painted by experts to be of any worth.

We all hate paying for shipping. When you buy a painting like this online, you might be tempted to choose the cheapest possible mailing method. After all, how could a painting break or get damaged with a little reugh handling?

Actually, there are plenty of ways in which that could happen. Remember - it's paint, not print. Heat, high humidity, moisture or dryness, could easily leave their mark.