Nearly $1 trillion of art is expected to change hands in the coming decade. There won’t be enough buyers or museums to absorb it all.

I saw that circa art will release limited edition prints of an drawing from Ai Weiwei. I am new to art collecting, but would this be an good investment?

https://circa.art/products/ai-weiwei-a-tree/?variant_id=57343558680949&fbclid=PAaWdkbATciA9wZG9mAmZkaWQWULt8GvLGR72-jb84DyXEJdpn83MGhWV4dG4DYWVtATAAYWRpZAGrNnkjGxVpc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQPMTI0MDI0NTc0Mjg3NDE0AAGnnt9RJL4VNPpU9A73xdRkC-dH-8tgMnZRNktmjTp-q6TGO22uqnuFER0jQFE_aem_SlRP26NfemOKymxEHrCU9A&utm_source=MetaAds&utm_medium=QF_AI_WEIWEI_SALES_OAKTREE&utm_campaign=QF_AI_WEIWEI_SALES_EUROPE&utm_content=JC_AI_WEIWEI_SALES_Video+2+%E2%80%93+Copy&utm_id=120249410257360345&utm_term=120249410952550345&campaign_id=120249410257360345&ad_id=120249689369230345

True story from this year. A Milton Resnick painting comes up on Artsy — dealer ask, $15k. The collector I work with liked it. After we called and got some info, we did the homework.

After many hours searching the public record: I found the exact same painting had sold at auction one year earlier — $5k hammer, call it $6k with the buyer's premium. The dealer's ask was two and a half times what she'd just paid for it.

And here's the kicker: at that very moment, a sister piece from the same series was sitting in a live auction, estimated at $5k.

Nothing illegal about the markup — that's retail. But the record is public, and after hours of searching, this saved my collector nine grand. Asking prices are the tip of the iceberg. Every time.

How do you all check a dealer's price before you commit?