Overview
Stephen Foster Fine Arts is a private dealership dedicated to serving the interests of both buyers and sellers in a direct and unmediated way. The firm is predicated on a philosophy which advocates significance in the context of historiographics and their analysis.
Our relationship to clients is described by what objectives lay behind their investment and collecting agendas. We believe that both should be guided by clear purpose, whether it be the creation of an historically significant and coherent collection or the acquisition of sound fine arts assets. We believe these to be closely related, indeed inseparable, issues.
Budget considerations are always important in determining the character and constitution of a collection or investment portfolio. However great or modest the ambition of the collecting or investment, or the budget committed to them, we also strongly believe that important works can be acquired at a reasonable costs and still represent the basis of strong collections and enduring assets.
While there are many analytical models available for the strategizing and management of collecting and investment, most are defined by their mapping of an artist's performance in the marketplace; that is, by what could be likened to their "form chart." The parallel to handicapping is real, and so are the risks. Although Stephen Foster Fine Arts sees these analytics as relevant, in so far as they serve as precautions to market downsides, we feel their predictive values are limited to short term returns on investments for interests trading in art as no more (or no less) than a commodity.
Just as it is impossible to work seriously in all art markets, it is also impossible to seriously serve all collectors and investors. We are committed to finding the match between our strategies, objectives, philosophies and those of our clients. Based on the establishment of a meaningful intersection between the firm's and the client's agendas, we create the basis of collecting and investing "needs."
The targeted exchange of works entails clear financial advantages as it is likely to identify the best and most financially driven buyers and sellers. By these means, we feel the objectives of buyers and sellers are brought into a mutual dependency which serves the best investment and collecting interests of both. Based on clearly defined needs, Stephen Foster Fine Arts strives to serve clients who are seeking to "place work" rather than to "sell" it, and to serve clients seeking to "identify," "locate," and "find" work, for the right reasons, rather than to merely "buy" it.
Even the greatest and largest inventories deliver no more than an approximation to a model predicated on collecting and investment needs. Hence, there is frequently a vacuum in buying and selling art that needs to be filled, as purposefully and meaningfully as possible, in order to serve very specific investing or collecting agendas. Stephen Foster Fine Arts likens its activities, in filling this vacuum, to curating fine arts investing and collecting.
Our goal is to work with clients in the shaping of new collecting and investing ventures, and in the reshaping and redefining of existing investing and collecting ventures. We feel we are well credentialed for achieving these goals in terms of how they relate to investment and collection strategies and management.
