Death and Cabbage Demystified: What is the role of art advisers?

Here’s what you get when you hire an art consultant

As the contemporary art market has grown, more and more collectors are chasing a finite number of works by brand-name artists and hot up-and-comers--and they want to be sure that they’re making the right choice. Art advisers help collectors buy art by offering a variety of services to simplify the acquisition process.

An art adviser educates a client, helps to focus their interest, and provides access to the best quality artworks within a given budget. When you use an art adviser, you’re acquiring a trove of knowledge that’s been cultivated over years of looking at art, analyzing auction sales, and understanding the inner workings of the market.

Because art is an intangible asset with a few concrete value-adding characteristics, it’s difficult for many collectors to differentiate between the quality of different works. And with rising demand, galleries often sell only to their most loyal or high-profile clients, making it difficult for new buyers to get access to desirable works.

We’ve observed that there are a lot of novice collectors out there who don’t realize that you can’t simply run through the doors and make your first purchase. Primary market galleries often have three-year waiting lists--and they’re very picky who they sell to.

Today many collectors rely on their art adviser to help navigate the complexities of contemporary art and the art market. A respected adviser can use their connections to help facilitate access to artworks normally reserved for loyal repeat customers.

Beyond providing access to emerging artists, advisers also help refine their client's tastes and introduce them to dealers, artists, and other experts. Ultimately an adviser brings expertise and connoisseurship, meaning the ability to distinguish a great work of art over an okay work of art by the same artist, and being able to look outside of trends and identify areas of interest and quality that perhaps aren’t obvious ones.

At Death & Cabbage, we appreciate the age-old “buy what you love” mantra - which is often a downside when buyers rely on a market expert to tell them what to purchase. We don’t want to participate in homogenizing art collecting. With very eclectic tastes ourselves (Alandra loves polar opposites -  pastels on one hand and dark themes on the other, while Dannah is strongly feline motivated), we are firm in helping budding collectors build a collection that’s truly theirs.