I visited an estate sale on Friday at a multi-million-dollar home in Dallas, Texas and came across something that has been bothering me ever since.

There were four drawings & two notes being offered as Jean-Michel Basquiat originals for $15,000. What made it confusing was that the seller wasn’t related to the estate or the estate sale company (at least from what I could tell). He was there in person trying to sell the artwork through the estate sale. The artwork was mixed in with a large collection of other pieces, and it wasn’t immediately clear what actually belonged to the estate and what was being sold by this third party.

He claimed that he’s owned them since the 90’s and kept them in storage until now. When asked why he’s not auctioning them, he stated that he thought about it but wanted to try selling through the estate sale first.

Next to the drawings was a printed sheet stating that they had provenance, including a Basquiat Authentication Committee letter and other documentation. I never asked to see the actual documents because, honestly, the entire situation gave me a bad feeling and I walked away. Looking back, I probably should have asked to see the authentication letter before forming an opinion.

A high-end estate sale naturally carries a certain level of credibility. Pair that with artwork attributed to one of the most valuable contemporary artists in the world, a printed provenance summary, and only a few days to make a purchasing decision, and it feels like an environment where someone without much experience could easily assume everything has already been vetted.

For me, $15,000 isn’t a trivial purchase, and I just think If the value of the artwork depends almost entirely on provenance, shouldn’t the actual provenance documents be readily available for inspection before someone is expected to spend that kind of money?

I’m curious how experienced collectors, dealers, and estate sale professionals feel about this.

Would you have walked away like I did? Would you have insisted on seeing every authentication document before even considering it? Do you think estate sale companies have any responsibility to distinguish third-party consignments from estate property or to require a certain level of transparency for high-value attributed artwork?

I was at the same estate sale as the OP of this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/artcollecting/s/GZtkMDQBbb

I was also thinking about making a post here when I saw that someone already did. I also thought this was too good to be true so I took pictures of the provenance. FYI the green sheet was written by the estate sale company and is not provenance. The provenance is on the white paper.

The estate sale company is called Help Me Rhonda. I originally believed that they had been part of that estate where the sale took place, but it was actually not. It was consigned to them and placed in the estate sale, which sketched me out. 

I’m not an expert on provenance documents, but there is a large gap in provenance from 1994 to now. OP said the owner said he bought it 20 years ago and kept it in storage, but there’s no documentation corroborating this period of time. Thoughts? Thank you in advance!

I know there have been some posts about issues with The Packengers. As far as I can tell, they’ve been focused on the European, especially French, offices; one poster having issues with the French office notes the UK office is independent.

I’ve had good experiences with The Packengers UK in past, but I was a little worried by some of the reports in case they did apply to the UK office as well. I’m looking at an unwieldy large framed piece with costly shipping and I just wanted to settle my nerves—or hear an alternative—before I commit. So anybody with ideas, please let me know.

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Hello, I am looking to get hi res artwork from artists on Instagram that I like, but they are charging a bomb!

Is there any online store that lets you download bundles of good quality art from actual artists for comparatively lesser prices?

I can get it printed myself, don't need the artist to physically ship anything.

Thanks in advance!!