How Fred builds his opinion

Six dimensions, 135 points

Every artist in Fred's catalogue is scored on six market signals:

• Past market peak /25
  Where the artist stood at the last cycle high, the ceiling the market has already proven it can pay.
• Market decline /25
  The discount from that peak. A real gap between today's prices and past highs is often where opportunity hides.
• Cultural solidity /30
  Museum acquisitions, scholarship, retrospectives, catalogues raisonnés. The bedrock that keeps an artist relevant across cycles.
• Catalyst potential /25
  Upcoming institutional shows, foundation activity, monographs, biennials. Events that can re-rate a market in months.
• Press signal /15
  Critical recognition and editorial momentum from serious outlets.
• Gallery defender /20
  An active primary gallery defending prices, or the telling absence of one.

Three reports

Analyze an artwork — Choose the artist from Fred's catalogue and enter the lot details; the photo is used for Fred's read of the work and its visible condition. Fred compares the estimate with his own fair value range, and reads the work itself: its period, its place in the artist's output and its relative strength. Add the back of the canvas and a UV photograph for a fuller condition reading.

Research an artist — A complete market report on any artist in Fred's catalogue: price history, institutional anchoring, gallery representation, press coverage, and the catalysts most likely to move the market.

Value your artwork — Fred assesses the market for your work, the best-positioned sale channel and timing, and the houses that have recently sold comparable lots.

Three opinions

Every artwork analysis ends with a clear opinion:

• Opportunity
  The estimate sits well below Fred's fair value range.
• Fairly Priced
  The estimate is in line with where the market currently clears.
• Overvalued
  The estimate sits well above Fred's fair value range.

Artist and seller reports give a neutral market profile instead.

When the data is thin, Fred says so

A fair value range is only as good as the sales behind it. When verified comparables are too few or too scattered, Fred does not invent a figure: he says so, and explains what the market does show.

Why the secondary market creates opportunities

Prices at auction are set by a small number of specialists, in rooms with limited transparency, on a calendar that moves faster than most buyers can follow. Estimates are anchored to recent results rather than to where an artist's market is heading. Catalysts are public, but reading and weighing them takes time. Those gaps are where a structured, repeatable method earns its keep.

AskFred is not a price database, an authentication service or a broker. It is a second opinion: fast, structured and independent, designed to sharpen your judgment, not replace it.