We all know when there is a panic on the financial market, everything that can be seen as an investment will rise in price. Besides traditional commodities such as gold and antiques, you can also consider some products of the modern art as in investment for your money. Let’s consider paintings. A properly chosen painting can essentially increase the wealth of an owner in just a few years. And it is not hard to choose such a piece of art, as it might seem at first.

There a lot of questions and problems you will need to solve before making a decision. Why is there a great difference in price for different paintings? How to buy artwork that will eventually rise in price? How not to overpay for it? What factors influence the cost of a painting? These and other questions are what you will have to answer if you want to change the interior of your house with a stylish modern painting and make a wise investment for your hard earned money.

The difference in price of artworks can be astonishing. For two almost identical paintings (the canvas, oil) in different places you will be asked to pay from $500 to $5000. How do you make the right choice in a situation like that? Often buyers simply don’t recognize the factors that price consist of. In the best-case scenario when you know an artist personally and you are buying a painting directly from him or her – the price practically equals the expenses of the painting. But this case is not very typical.

If you buy a painting from an art gallery, what are the factors that influence the price? First of all - rent of the gallery space. The majority of galleries are located in places where low rent is usually not the case. Salary of employees of a gallery who carry out the exhibitions. Cost of advertising such as publications in press. Expenses for posters, catalogues, invitations to opening of exhibitions, etc. Financing different "noncommercial" art projects, and many other things. You will overpay at least twice as much than if you buy a painting from a gallery. But if you want to invest your money smart, buying from an exhibition or through an art gallery makes sense. They will offer you the works of art that have already gone through preliminary selection and tough competition. You know for sure it is a good investment.

If you are buying a painting directly from an artist, all you can do is basically rely on your own taste and on some attributes of professionalism and success that the artist portrays/of the artist. What kind of attributes are they? While you consider buying a painting from an artist, it is relevant to take an interest in his or her art education. Certainly there are some talented self-educated artists, but they are very rare.

There are some questions you may want to ask your artist. Does he or she have any works in large museums? Is he or she a winner of any art competitions? Where was his or her recent exhibition? A list of exhibitions will tell you a lot about him or her. Ask him/her to show you a catalog of exhibitions, posters, booklets and other advertising material that he/she has. A good website is also a sign of professionalism. Certainly not all talented artists have their own websites but most of them do. And if you wish to get artwork, which in the near future will rise in price, you should choose among the artists who have already reached certain level of success. If an artist cooperates with large poster companies, it is a very good sign. For instance if a gallery offers you a painting for $2000, the artist will most likely give it to you for $1000.

If you have problems with going to galleries and attending the opening days you can do everything online. Search in Google or in any other catalogue under the category "art" and look at the personal websites of the artists. You most definitely will be able to see a lot of interesting things. This way of research has one disadvantage - good artwork may not look as interesting on the screen of your monitor as in real life. On the other hand, if you become interested in some paintings, even in digital format, the original will definitely make a much stronger impression on you.