Originals under a thousand dollars
Paintings by the artists on this site are in museums or in the hands of people who do not need a website to find them. Prints are different. An etching or a woodcut was made to exist in an edition, and the artists here all made editions large enough that genuine impressions still circulate at prices a normal person can pay.
The rules that keep you out of trouble:
- Know the editions. Goya's Caprichos were reprinted from the original plates for over a century; Rembrandt's plates were reworked for two; Kollwitz was reprinted after her death. Each of those later impressions is real and each is worth a fraction of an early one. The catalogue raisonne number and the edition should be stated in the listing.
- Facsimiles are a separate thing. Amand-Durand heliogravures after Rembrandt, the Amsterdam Audubon, Dover reprints: honest reproductions, frequently listed as more.
- Auction houses with print departments (Swann in New York is the one that sells at this level) publish their sale results, which is the fastest education in what things cost.
- eBay is where the bargains and the fakes both live. Use it once you can tell them apart, not before.
