Try searching what original art costs in Italy. You'll get figures ranging from a few tens of euros to several thousand, often on the same page, almost never with a source. It's one of the most-asked questions in the field and one of the worst-answered.
The reason isn't a conspiracy: it's that "artwork" is not a price category. Asking what an artwork costs is like asking what a vehicle costs.
Why Estimates Don't Help
There's a second, subtler problem. Nearly every figure in circulation is a market estimate: an average computed across segments that have nothing to do with you. "An emerging Italian artist averages €5,300" is probably correct for how it was built — and completely useless if you're looking at your first photograph.
That average includes galleries with a shopfront downtown, artists with exhibition records, auctions. It describes a market you aren't entering. Using it to orient yourself does exactly one thing: it convinces you art is out of reach, and stops you before you look.
The Question That Works
The useful question isn't "what does art cost". It's: what does this kind of work, in this format, in this edition, from this seller, cost today. That has exactly one answer, and it's checkable.
That's why we stopped estimating. Our price pages don't report industry averages: they count the works we hold, one by one, and show the price they sell for right now.
The Numbers, Without Estimates
Here's what counting rather than estimating produces:
- Signed art photography: €40–100, median €50. That's 54 works by 8 artists.
- Painting and mixed media, unique pieces: €60–140, median €90. That's 65 works by 5 artists.
- Modern and contemporary, large format: €200–280, median €250. That's 12 works.
The median across the whole selection is €80. Not "from €80": median. Half the works cost less.
What the Market Comparison Says
The art market treats a work under €500 as "affordable", and puts the cost of starting a collection between €300 and €2,000.
The absolute ceiling of our catalogue is €280. Everything, large formats included, sits below the threshold of what the market calls affordable. That isn't a boast: it follows arithmetically from the prices above, and you can check it work by work.
Price Isn't the Criterion
A warning, because a price guide that omits it is dishonest: knowing what something costs doesn't tell you what to buy.
At these figures you are not making a financial investment. The secondary market for emerging artists is thin and most works never resell. You're buying an object you'll look at every day for years. That's an excellent deal measured that way, and a poor one measured any other way.
So use the numbers for what they're good for — working out whether something is within reach — and then forget them. The real decision is made by the image, not the figure.
Where to Start
If you want the full prices with the work-by-work distribution, they're here. If you'd rather start from the people, the artists are here. And if you want to understand what you're buying first, original or print is the distinction almost everything else depends on.