FAB Market Insights
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Collecting + Investing, Auctions + Art Fairs
Museum loans usually occur when a museum is holding a relevant exhibition. For example. we have just arranged the loan of a wonderful Impressionist painting by Alfred Sisley to a German museum honoring the collector who acquired the painting in 1882. The exhibition will contain paintings by Édouard Manet, Claude Monet and others.
Alfred Sisley, La Seine à Argenteuil, 1872, Oil on canvas, 19.5 x 28.5 in | 49.5 x 72 cm, purchased by FAB for a client and to be loaned to the Liebermann Villa in Germany.
We have previously organised exhibition loans of works we have acquired for FAB clients to The Metropolitan Museum, New York; the National Gallery, London; the Musée d’Orsay, Paris; the Philadelphia Museum of Art and a number of others.
Edgar Degas, Danseuses bleutées (La répétition au foyer de la danse), 1882, Oil on canvas, 20 x 24 in | 50 x 61 cm, purchased through FAB and loaned to ‘Degas and the Dance’ at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Gustave Caillebotte, Portrait d'homme (Edouard Dessommes), 1881, Oil on canvas, 20 x 24 in | 51 x 61 cm, Purchased for a client and loaned through FAB to the prestigious exhibitions at the the Musee d’Orsay and Getty Museum.
The Caillebotte on view at a busy Musee d’Orsay.
Loans of works by Contemporary artists only occur for specific exhibitions but are particularly useful in helping establish the artist’s reputation. It is more common for private owners to donate Contemporary artworks to museums. Donations build collectors’ relationships with their museums and also have tax advantages.
We also help arrange longer term loans to museums. Currently we have organised the loan of a marvellous Lucca della Robbia to the Fine Art Museum in Houston, which is hung in the same room as a tondo oil painting by Michelangelo and other great Italian Renaissance masters. We managed to acquire this extraordinary work from a private European collection for a US client.
Andrea della Robbia, The Madonna in adoration of the Christ Child, circa 1470
Roundel in relief in glazed terracotta, Diameter 74 in | 188 cm, With Houston Museum curator, James Anno. Sourced and negotiated by Fine Art Brokers for a US client.
Less frequently FAB arranges the sale of works to museums. A high profile example is the sale to the Museum of Western Art in Tokyo of an oil painting by Edgar Degas. This was interesting as we had purchgased the work from a prominent Japanese collection and it seemed fitting that it returned for public view.
Edgar Degas, Trois danseuses dans les coulisses, 1880-85, Oil on canvas, 21.5 x 25.5 in | 54.6 x 64.8 cm, purchased for a client and then sold to the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo.
Finally, we occasionally negotiate, on behalf of clients, the donation of artworks to museums. This clearly has philanthropic aspects, but can also be advantageous taxwise.
Asher B Durand, Progress, 1853, Oil on canvas, 48 x 72 in | 122 x 183 cm
We negotiated the purchase of this iconic American painting – from a corporate museum, in fact – and about ten years later arranged the donation, at an agreed value of over $30 million, to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Find out how Fine Art Brokers can help connect you to museums.
11.1.2024
FAB October Report
With interest rate uncertainty, strife in the Middle East and elsewhere, and the US election nearly upon us, many collectors and art world insiders were holding their breath in anticipation of the market performance in the busy month of October. In London and Paris there were major auctions, art fairs and exhibitions, and as I write The Art Show in New York is taking place. The good news is that we can all gently exhale – while the art market certainly isn’t what it was 2 years ago, it’s still alive and relatively well.
4.9.2025
Art Market Report
While the stock markets are currently in turmoil due to Trump’s tariffs, a situation which changes daily and sometimes hourly, the art market breathed a sigh of relief last week when it emerged that artworks entering the US will be exempt from tariffs. While this may change, and existing import taxes into other countries remain (5% VAT in UK, 6% in Europe, higher in some other countries), the US tariff situation is hugely significant given that the US is the most important market for art, with 43% of sales by value.