🔥 No Bids Dancing + Yoshitomo Nara

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HEY Y’ALL!

Thanks for all the great feedback on the Roby Dwi Antono piece I shared last day!

🔥 ICYMI – Catchs from the Last Weeks:

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

2. M. Florine Démosthène, Contrite, 2018 - priced at £7,000

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

Today we have a Yoshitomo Nara that still snarls, early 2000s angst, signed, and rare. Plus, turnover’s down 27 % and snipers are circling.

-Today’s Catch-

Yoshitomo Nara

💭 My 2 Cents: Girl in a Box is Nara at his best—early 2000s, still raw, still punk, pre-mellow phase. You get the angst, the boxed-in metaphor (yes, literally), and the signature stare that built an empire. £22.5k isn’t highway robbery, but it’s on the high end unless you’re emotionally attached. Still, it’s one of the few signed prints from that era with a clean edition of 100—way leaner than the 300–500+ runs he pumped out later. Most people buying Nara now don’t want the bronze heads or polite girls with sprouts—they want the bratty ones that look like they just threw your favorite book in the trash.

🔑 Key Numbers: The 1999 ukiyo-e woodcut set blasted past £445k. Meanwhile, open edition offset posters still crawl under £5k—so ignore the hype that they’re breaking five figures. Volume across Nara’s market is down ~30% from the 2021 peak, but these early signed prints have held up, trading hands quietly and holding value.

🧠 Why It’s a Smart Pick: It’s early, signed, rare (for Nara), and emotionally on-brand. You’re not paying for a print, you’re buying the moment before the brand got polished. With Hayward’s show opening in June, this has just enough time to look like foresight, not FOMO.

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: sniper, haircut, kill-shot

How to Hunt in a Market Full of Cowards

Everyone's still pretending they don’t smell blood. That’s your edge.

Auction turnover dropped another 27 %. Trophy lots over $10 million? Down 44 %. That’s not a dip. That’s a gut wound.

Sellers are cracking. Guarantees are getting recycled. Estimates are trimmed like bad bangs. And collectors are hiding behind their advisors like toddlers behind mom’s leg.

Perfect. This is the part where you load the rifle.

Rule one: You don’t buy unless you’re staring at 30 % off the 2019–23 comp. Not a similar one. The same medium, scale, and period.

Rule two: No dancing. Submit one bid. Low. Firm. Let them sweat. Shame is leverage.

Rule three: Snipers don’t chase hype. They chase mispricing. If your dealer tells you “there’s buzz,” laugh in their face. Buzz doesn’t print returns.

You don’t want velocity. You want dislocation.

Hunt single-owner estates. Riggio. Bass. The over-leveraged crypto bros unloading Richter. Their loss is your arbitrage.

And if you're still waiting for the “market to stabilize,” enjoy your savings account. T-bills are cute. Real power is locking in 50 % LTV on a distressed Kiefer and flipping the loan into a 2025 Stingel at Christie’s day sale.

P.S. If someone tells you it’s “not a good time to buy,” nod politely. Then outbid them by $1 and smile like it’s personal.

-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!

2. Get in front of my audience - With more than 10,000+ newsletter subscribers and 200k+ Instagram followers, my team and I work with dozens of partners in unique ways to help them grow. Interested in a partnership, tap here.

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.