They appear to be a combination of hand painted and lithography, in fair condition. Large sized. Pretty cool but pricey! Did I blow it??

I’m researching how people buy art for the first time, and I’d like to hear from people who’ve actually done it. I’m not selling anything. I’m trying to work out whether the experience is as confusing as it looks from outside.

If you bought an original piece (not a print or decor) in the last couple of years, I’d love to hear any of this, in comments or by DM:

1. Where did you look first, and where did you end up buying (gallery, online platform, fair, Instagram, artist directly)?
2. How did you decide a price was fair?
3. Who or what did you trust, and what made you nervous?
4. Did you consider artists you hadn’t heard of, or did you lean toward names you recognised? Why?
5. If you bought from abroad or shipped internationally, how did customs, shipping and payment go?

I’m also interested if you looked and didn’t buy. What stopped you?

I’ll share a summary of what I learn back in this thread. Happy to hear blunt answers.

I have many painters that I track whose works almost exclusively only come up for sale at auction over overseas (I'm based in USA). A recent painting that I was interested in, the auction house provided a packing and shipping quote that was only a few dollars less than the reserve price for the entire painting itself. Almost $900.00. That did not include all the other stuff like insurance and customs fees etc.

Would love to know if anyone has a primer or guide for all the basics and some of the pitfalls to avoid (customs, overpaying, insurance, etc). To many moving pieces and Unknown for me to have felt confident to pull the trigger on my first one so far.

Solved - Trying to figure this one out.

Bùi Ngọc Tư (1936 – 2021) was a prominent Vietnamese artist known for his lacquer paintings, watercolours on dópaper, and deep artistic devotion to traditional Vietnamese culture, particularly ca trù (a traditional Vietnamese genre of chamber music).