The professional view: Flora McEvedy, Corfield Morris

1024 768 Middleton Advisors

“People can find the concept of art advice mildly disconcerting,” says Flora McEvedy of Corfield Morris. “When it comes to matters of personal taste, the branding and selling of expertise is a delicate business.  But art is a £60 billion market – roughly the same size as the global retail market for diamonds, and totally unregulated. So it really makes sense to recruit the help of an expert.”

“Everyone starts from the position that they know what they like and that is where most people stop. But verifying a work’s authenticity and condition, checking value and reasonable pricing, confirming provenance and issues of due diligence – these are all tasks for professionals. Involving an art advisor offers a degree of security in these often choppy waters.  Prices of particular artists rise and plummet, of course, so as an investment, there are difficult calls to be made. Market experience is an essential part of our remit.”

“There are two distinct strands to our advice,” says Flora. “Is this intrinsically a good object? Secondly, is this a sensible price to pay in the current climate?  We provide our clients with answers to these questions, researching every aspect of the artwork from the artist to the dealer. Market experience is an essential part of our remit.”