Insider Guide.(art collection, mascara)

Insider's Guide culture

How to start an art collection

By Barbara Guggenheim Guggenheim is a partner in the art consulting firm Guggenheim Asher Associates. Her clients include Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg. If your ten-year college reunion has come and gone but that dorm-room Water Lilies poster is still with you, it's time to get your feet wet as an art collector. Many of my clients decorate their walls with works priced at several million dollars, but you can start collecting with only a couple thousand -- about the price of that Dolce & Gabbana suit you've had your eye on. * Take your time. Don't buy the first thing you see. Visit galleries, check out museum exhibitions, subscribe to art magazines. Art fairs also offer a great way to see many different genres in one place. Several new ones have popped up recently that specialize in affordable works by young artists. Don't be intimidated by auctions either. Charities often auction moderately priced work -- even Sotheby's and Christie's have four-digit options. * Buy for love, not money. Art is another place to put your money, but one that becomes part of your life in the meantime -- stocks and bonds rarely look impressive over your couch. So rule number one is, you have to love it. If a piece doesn't really appeal to you aesthetically, don't get it just because someone told you it's a wise investment. * Start small. Photography, prints, and drawings are all good first purchases. A print by a contemporary master such as Jasper Johns can be had for $3,000. Other big-name painters (and even sculptors) often have original draw- ...