Art as an Investment

With the art and antiques market very soft, my avocation as an "antique picker" has been put on hold till times improve. I recently was communicating with an individual from an auction house in Me and he was telling me that theyve managed to have some higher end art pieces move by using a technique called an :irrevocable bid". I was explained that this was a (Going in to the auction" guaranteed minimum sale bid for an item being consigned. How does that work? Who posts the irrevocable bid, the auction house?

High end decorative arts (my area of picking) includes art pottery like NEwcomb or TECO etc. The prices and the sales have really tanked in the recent 4 months. The real recession has sort of just caught up. Real high end art is still moving but at reduced volumes where the auction houses and a few galleries around the country are closing some of thweir specialty sections.

I think, that if one were capable and had some good advice, now may be a good time to buy (if someone wishes to sell).

If I'm not mistaken, unlike the late 80's and 90's recessions, the auction market for fine art has remained strong and some record prices have been brought at auction for the real thing. In that market, the profit margin has always been astronomical causing the amateur collector to gain the illusion they can buy any art and they will eventually make money.

Decorative arts usually take it in the shorts in a recession as, like many antiques, they do not have a record of appreciation like, say, a Monet or a Rembrandt.

So now there's a book out on the matter of the Getty, Marion True, and her curatorial forebears. Interesting review by Hugh Eakin of the book, Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World’s Richest Museum
by Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino, in the New York Review of Books, here:

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jun/23/what-went-wrong-getty/?pagination=false

All this is somewhat tangential to art as an investment, the thread title, but I didn't immediately find that we had a separate thread on the subject of the Getty and the trial in Italy - and I'm busy doing several things at once so I've just added the link here.

If you want to invest in art, it is must for you to know what the game is all about. Art is a good investment. If you are a first time investor then you should have to take advice from experts and buy only works of renowned artists. Art is not like trading, invest for the long term. But one more thing Art does not give you any additional income like interest or dividend.

since the depths of the recession, the art market has been piking up. (Really high end stuff had not been too affected except that not mush has been offered as compared to stuff offered in the pre recession yers)

My area of interest has been high end Arts n Crafts pottery and 20h century art.
The pottery has picked up to"ALMOST" pre recession values (theres still about a 20% difference but it was as low as 70% down in 2011).
Will it recover? who knows. We may have a new standard set because much of the A&C stuff was waaay over valued in the early 2000's.

As far as art , Ive seen some stuff having new records (mostly stuff that is done by really well known artists like Rothko , Kent, Wyeth, etc).
Average wrks or the really good stuff by regionally well known artists are still struggling because the buyers are not the "Super rich"