The Largest Privately held, Single Artist Collection for a Master in North America???

[Todd B]

I'm strongly considering selling this collection, Otto Antoine (1865-1951), due to insurance, fire concerns (I live above San Deigo, CA) and downsizing. Where could I start???

[John]

You could start by opening a membership with artprice.com and researching everything about past sales. Countries where the best prices are realized, specific auction houses where the best prices are realized or who simply sell a lot of works by this artist. That will help you decide if you want to sell the works locally or ship them elsewhere. With items likely to fetch under $1,000 or whatever, it may not be worthwhile to crate and ship the works to be sold.

With a large number of works, I think the most common strategy is to break up the sale over many separate auctions; maybe also split the collection between multiple auction houses. If you talk to a couple of likely auction houses I'm sure they'll give you realistic advice how to manage the sale.