🔥 Boring Always Wins + M. Florine Démosthène

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HEY Y’ALL!

Thanks for all the great feedback on the Eugenie Vronskaya piece I shared last day!

🔥 ICYMI – Catchs from the Last Weeks:

1. Ad Minoliti, Teteritas, 2021 - priced at £21,500

2. Eugenie Vronskaya, Dreamwalker Rise 4, 2022-2023 - priced at £8,750

3. Mark Tobey, Untitled (Black,White and Red), 1965 - priced at £13,000

Today we have a M. Florine Démosthène priced like a student piece—raw, glittered, and about to spike. Plus, post-war blue-chips go bargain-bin and flippers get smoked.

-Today’s Catch-

M. Florine Démosthène

💭 My 2 Cents: Contrite hits that sweet spot between soulful and market-smart. Démosthène painted this in 2018, right when her “Black heroine” concept locked in—and before Mariane Ibrahim scooped her up. You get the mythology, the glitter, the Mylar, all baked into a big, emotionally charged composition. It’s less polished than her post-2020 works, but that’s part of the charm. It's raw, early, and priced like someone didn’t check the Phillips results.

🔑 Key Numbers: £7,000 (~$8,750) for a 91 x 122 cm piece from 2018? Wild. Her auction record sits just under $28K. Museum acquisitions (Frist, NMAAHC), gallery solo shows (Paris, SCAD, Frist), and inclusion in Multiplicity put her firmly in the institutional fast lane. Primary market prices for newer large works are circling $25K–$50K. This one's nearly half that.

🧠 Why It’s a Smart Pick: This is a pre-acceleration piece from a now-validated artist whose collage heroines are carving out their own category. The price makes no sense unless you think museums made a mistake. They didn’t. If the work holds up (it does), and the career keeps climbing (it will), Contrite becomes the kind of underpriced sleeper collectors brag about later.

Turn Art into an Asset Class

Each week, I open five private strategy calls for collectors who want their next acquisition to work harder — capital appreciation, liquidity, hard data, zero guesswork.

✅ 30-minute 1-on-1 portfolio audit: we map your budget, risk, and exit horizon, then pinpoint specific artworks currently on the market.

✅ Two months of Artscapy Club membership — free. Early-access deals, price indices, peer portfolio insights. Regular price: $120. You pay $0.

Here’s what a collector messaged me after our call last week:

Five spots only. Once they fill, next availability is June.

-In a Minute-

🔥 Words I Like: dopamine, dynasty, dump

Boring Always Wins

Short-term flips are junk food. Long-term conviction is a trust fund. You need both.

The 2024 crash flushed out the lazy money. Volumes held. Values tanked. Great—less noise, more edge.

Art Basel’s report said global sales dropped 12%. But deal count actually rose. Translation: panic sellers, strategic buyers.

Your Lightning Pocket should be surgical. No more vibes-based buying. Think Lucy Bull: $60k in 2021, $2.3M in Hong Kong just 3 years later. That’s how you arbitrage a catalyst.

Only buy under 18-month windows if you can name the exact moment it pops—fair booth, survey show, estate chaos, whatever. Anything else is a gamble you dress up as a thesis.

Your Dynasty Vault? Think Piet Mondrian at Christie’s. Estimated $50M. These pieces don’t care about Instagram. They’re intergenerational power.

Joan Mitchell’s Canada II hammered at $3.48M vs a $3.9M estimate in March. That’s called a market misread. And a buying opportunity.

No one wants to admit this, but right now is the best time in 5 years to enter long. Post-War blue-chips are down 20–40%. Sellers are scared. Be the one who isn’t.

Split your stack: 20% in calculated flips, 70% in dynasty plays, 10% dry powder for distressed assets. Keep it boring. That’s how you win.

Don’t touch what you can’t exit in 60 days. Don’t hold what you wouldn’t lend against.

Too many collectors are chasing engagement instead of outcomes. You’re not building an audience. You’re building an empire.

-Whenever You Are Ready-

Here are 3 ways I can help you:​

1. Serious about collecting? Join Frame&Flame Circle, my exclusive WhatsApp group for top-tier art connections. Apply now!

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3. Don’t gamble on your art investments. Get a free advisory consult and 60-day membership at Artscapy—no guesswork, just expert guidance.

See you soon!

-Alvaro (@theartmarketguy)

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Disclaimer

Not financial advice. Frame&Flame is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions.