Art Value Framed vs. Unframed

I would price comparably and play up the fact that the buyer can frame as desired and the shipping cost will be substantially lower.

Good morning:
There are a couple of things that you may wish to think about. It will help with this scenario and also in the future as well.
A couple of hints to draw a parallel between art framing and the following:
At Home Depot real wood crown molding [pine] unfinished is approx. $5-$6 per lineal foot. Now think about how much a trim carpenter / contractor would charge to install, then how much for a painter to paint and finish it. Now this mental picture is just for a cheap rough guide first. But for fun, let’s say then that when finished the crown molding may run $8.00 to $10 per lineal foot. If you have a 2’x3’=10 lineal-running feet x $$10=about $100 if it were just for the wood, finish and nailing it together. Now at the frame shop, they will make very tight, smooth mitered joints, use colored wood putty to fill any seams or small nail holes to make the finish, put on an acid free, neautral Ph protective backing-moisture barrier, add the hanging hardware. So now you may be in the $125 to $150 range.
Now add to this that a good professional frame shop will have a huge selection of frames to offer [you have seen shops wityh all those small 90 degree corner pieces hanging on the wall to select from]. Some of those nicer pieces of wood with stippled colors, gold leafing, multi-stained pieces go for much more than Home depot crown molding per lineal foot. I have seen some at $20 to $30 per lineal foot just for the frame materials.

Now with many cheap art print reproductions, you will find they are framed in modern sleek metal frames that are locked together at each corner on the back with corner clamps, or spring loaded. These run about $.20 to $.25 per lineal INCH or about $3 per lineal foot. or $25 to $30 for a 2’x3′ painting, then what else you will find on the very low end prints is a plastic frame that is made from an injection molding process. These are very cheap, low end.

Now with regards to how much value an unframed painting is devalued. On the high end, nothing at all. Take a 10 million dollar painting that a foreign collector wants for his collection and you still have a 10 million dollar painting, framed or unframed. Take a low end reproduction, but done with a high resolution line count 300 dots or higher so the human eye can’t perceive it is a repro, or a Giclee’ print done with a high end inkjet printer that is worth about $50 for the art and put a $350 nice ornate frame on it and you have a big difference. I have been known to buy art at Estate Sales and then disassemble the art right on site and give the art and glass back to the owner and just take the frame. I also have done just the opposite. My wife hates when I do that. I even buy paintings on canvas, get them home, take the painting out and Gessoe over the painting I bought, sand it down and re-use it for my own art and then save the frame for something else.

Now lastly also an easy process is to just take the painting into a good professional frame shop [not Hobby Lobby or Jo Ann’s Fabrics] and talk with the shop owner. Tell him you may be thinking of having this framed and would he give you a quote to frame it professionally. He will show you some of the corner samples he has on the wall behind him, he will lay a couple down on the corners of the paiting, he will tell you the cost of that selection, pick one and have him give you a quote. Then that would be the approx. value added by anyone that would take it to a shop in the local area.

Lastly, tthere are frames that have very ornate scroll work on them, many are done with plaster or moulage clay then real gold leaf added. You may have seen frames with pieces broken off exposing white underneath in antique shops. Those could be very expensive frames and are worth money sold just as they are. A good craftsman that works with molded frames can repair broken off pieces, gold leaf over the repairs and create a $500 – $750 dollar frame. So buy old frames at flea markets, IF you know what you are buying.

Hope this helps in your decsion making process

Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta.