Value is often increased with rarety, and price is often influenced by desire. So it all comes down to levels of availability and demand. It has to be the right product, in the right condition, at the right time, in the right arena – be that a local newspaper ad’, an auction room, eBay, even a yard sale.
SOME BASICS:
Condition …
Clean, uncreased prints with vibrant colours should have a higher value. If your print appears ‘blue’ then it has ultra-violet sunlight damage (bleaching) and will be worth less.
Rarity …
If your print is on canvas it is much rarer and should be worth more.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Any Sara moon artwork on canvas that is around 30″ x 40″ in size, could be an original and should be professionally assessed before sale. You are welcome to contact me for an initial assessment at no charge.
Beyond the above, the answer to the question, ‘What’s it worth?’ is two-fold …
The ‘Commercial Value’ and availability of prints:
The art of Sara Moon was published firstly by Red Baron and later by Verkerke/Scandecor. Red Baron would have classed themselves a commercial fine art print house and Verkerke/Scandecor a ‘poster & print’ house who specialise in highly commercial, low-cost high-volume imagery with huge distribution.
Many prints remain out there, but few are in good condition – fading to blue by sunlight being common. Some prints were not distributed in the volumes of others and so become rarer still in good condition.
A number of galleries packaged Sara Moon art prints in an up-market format, with labels showing reference numbers and the like on the back. If you own such an print, my best advice would be DON’T take it out of its original frame. Works marked this way are relatively rare and with the sustained interest in this artist, such framing can only help its value.
Finally, a good place to see what prices original Sara Moon prints sell for is on the “Completed Listings” page at eBay. This shows you what price previous items were listed at and have actually sold for (or not) in recent times. To find this, you would enter Sara Moon in the search box and then tick the ‘Completed Listings’ box.
The ‘Aesthetic Value’
(A personal view)
For me, true artistic ‘value’ can only be judged by what something brings to your innermost senses. Such ‘value’ has no commercial measure; attempting to attach one is diametrically opposed to the very purpose of any true artworks existence. To the creator of such works the art itself is far more important than any payment received for creating it. And for me as a ‘viewer’, I can derive as much pleasure from a well taken photograph brought to me free via a magazine in some doctors waiting room, as I could ever get from viewing (or owning – whatever that means) the Monalisa!
LOOK at your Sara Moon artwork. What does it DO for you? If the answer is ‘little or nothing’ sell it if you can, for what you can get – but know, even if you cannot get a bean for it, that it may well have real ‘worth’ to some fellow human being – don’t destroy it – please find it a worthy home and let it live on.
If the image stirs you, keep it. Such feelings are hard come by.
