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buyer faq
How does your progressive commission work?
For a detailed overview visit our artist FAQ page.
How does your pricing algorithm work?
For a detailed explanation visit our artist FAQ page.
What’s the difference between following and favoriting?
You follow an artist and favorite individual artworks. You may only follow an artist after having purchased one of their artworks. By contrast, you may favorite individual artworks without having to purchase them, which lets you keep track of artworks you’re interested in.
How do resales work?
You may list any works of art you originally purchased on Curci Art for resale (secondary market). Resales are listed at their current estimated value and appear on the original artist’s page under works for sale alongside works being sold for the first time (primary market); this helps maintain your anonymity as well as that of other art collectors. Works being resold also appear in the marketplace search results. When viewing works on our platform you may see the entire sales history of that item whether it’s being sold for the first time or resold.
Do you charge a seller fee for resales?
- If you purchased any works of art on our platform you may resell them at their current estimated value. For artworks that are estimated to be $100,000 or less we charge a flat 10% seller fee. For artworks that are between $100,001 and $1,000,000 we charge a flat 8% seller fee. For artworks that are more than $1,000,000 we charge a flat 6% seller fee.
- The seller fee comes out of the sale proceeds. Buyers pay for shipping separately while the seller pays for handling. Curci Art splits the profit from seller fees 50/50 with the original artist as a royalty after covering the cost of transactions.
- E.g. Artwork is resold for $100,000. Seller keeps $90,000 less whatever they pay for handling. For example, if the handling cost is $100 then the seller keeps $89,900.
- 10% seller fee - 1% bank wire transaction = 9% profit (4.5% for Curci Art & 4.5% for original artist as a royalty).
- $4,500 for Curci Art + $4,500 for artist + $1,000 transaction fee + $90,000 for seller = $100,000
Who pays for transaction fees, shipping and handling?
For secondary sales, transaction fees are split 50/50 between Curci Art and the original artist. Shipping is charged separately to the buyer while handling is charged to the person reselling the artwork.
Can I resell works I obtained outside of Curci Art on your site?
No, you may only resell works that you originally purchased on Curci Art. The reason for this is that we have no means of verifying the authenticity of physical artworks that were obtained outside our platform. This is in contrast to works that have only ever been bought and sold on Curci Art, and whose provenance is clear and undisputed.
If I resell an artwork when do I get paid?
You will be able to access your funds when the artwork is received by its new owner, and after the fourteen (14) calendar day return policy has expired.
What payment methods do you accept?
Curci Art uses Stripe to process payments. We accept most major credit and debit cards as well as bank wire transfers. See our payment methods page for more information.
Who pays for transaction fees, shipping and handling?
For primary sales, transaction fees are paid for by Curci Art. Shipping is charged separately to the buyer while handling is paid for by the artist.
Who pays for art critics?
All art critics on Curci Art have their education verified before being allowed to write critiques. They critique individual works of art for sale on the primary market (not resales) and are paid a fixed price per critique. They get paid after a work of art has sold and its return policy has expired. Critique costs are paid for by the artist (it comes out of their cut of the proceeds), and the cost of critiques is limited to 5% of an artwork’s retail value.
How will my artwork be shipped?
- When an artwork is sold the artist or seller, in the case of resales, will receive a notification and email with instructions on how to ship out the artwork.
- For artworks that are small and non-fragile artists or sellers may simply print the shipping label and take the artwork to a FedEx or UPS store to be packaged by professionals. For artworks that are large and/or fragile we will use a white glove service; a courier will arrive at the artist or seller’s home to professionally package and pick up the artwork.
- We evaluating different logistics companies, and will provide more information regarding white glove services soon.
When will my artwork arrive?
When you buy a work of art on Curci Art you will receive an email receipt along with a FedEx or UPS tracking number. You can enter the tracking number on their respective websites to find out the shipping status of your purchase.
Do you offer international shipping?
We do not currently offer international shipping, but plan on doing so in 2023.
What is your return policy?
We have a 2 week return policy, which expires fourteen (14) calendar days from the date of delivery. Requests for returns must be submitted via email or phone within this period to be accepted; please provide your order details when contacting us. After confirming with us that the work will be returned you have three (3) calendar days to ship out the artwork. See our return policy page for more information.
Who pays for return shipping costs?
Customers are responsible for paying for return shipping. You will receive a refund after the artist or seller receives the artwork. Additionally, artworks are to be returned in their original packaging. For works that arrive damaged the gallery will pay for return shipping, but you must provide photos of both the product and packaging.
Can I cancel an order prior to shipment?
Yes, but you must contact us immediately via email or phone and provide your order details.
I know what kind of art I like, but don’t know how to narrow my search. How do I do this?
- There are two reasons why people buy art; for enjoyment because they like a particular piece by an artist or as an investment. If you know what art you like there are a multitude of ways in which to narrow your search. The first, but often overlooked option, is the search box. Here, you may search by key word such as artist name, university where an artist attended etc…
- Another option is to use the menu on our navigation bar. Our menu lets you filter by 5 mediums: paintings, drawings, prints, photos and sculpture. Each of these has additional dropdown filtering options such as price, material and subject. These will take you to our marketplace search results page.
- Our marketplace search results page has 11 filtering options, and 5 sorting options for you to narrow your search even further and find artwork you love.
What’s the difference between visual search and list view?
- Our default marketplace search results appear as a visual search. In visual search you initially only see artwork thumbnails. If you hover over a thumbnail you can get some basic information like the title of a work as well as the artist’s name, and price. If you click on a thumbnail a pop-up will appear with one or more full sized images of the work as well as additional information about the artwork and artist.
- In list view, you can see the same basic information about an artwork, but without having to hover over any thumbnails. You may switch between visual search and list view in the upper righthand corner of the marketplace search results next to “Show”.
I want to invest in art, but don’t know what to buy. Can you help me?
- There are two reasons why people buy art; for enjoyment because they like a particular piece by an artist or as an investment. If you want to find artwork to invest in you may sort your search results by how many followers and stamps an artist has. This lets you identify in demand artists and as well as artists that have favorable reviews by art critics. The more followers and stamps an artist has the more likely their work is to appreciate in value.
- You can also filter by artist category (emerging, established or blue chip) to gauge how safe an artwork is as an investment. Possible investment strategies include:
- Buying a several artworks by the same established or blue chip artist whose artworks are likely to appreciate in value.
- Take a diversified portfolio approach and invest in different promising emerging artists.
How do I change my password?
See our General FAQ page for more information.
How do I reset a forgotten password?
See our General FAQ page for more information.
How to I unsubscribe to your newsletter?
You may unsubscribe to our newsletter from your settings under account info.
Do you sell NFTs on Curci Art?
We do not currently offer NFTs, but plan on incorporating them at the beginning of 2023. When we do, our NFTs will be green, permanent and non-speculative. We plan on minting NFTs on a PoS (Proof of Stake) blockchain as this consumes significantly less energy than older PoW (Proof of Work) consensus models and will therefore be environmentally friendly. Additionally, we plan on storing the metadata on chain rather than via an http or IPFS link. Our proprietary pricing algorithm will be the main mechanism by which NFTs will appreciate in value as opposed to auction listings, which are used on other platforms.
When you start selling NFTs what payment options will you have?
- When we incorporate NFTs onto our platform you’ll be able to purchase NFTs via debt, credit, wire transfer, or cryptocurrency using a payment solution like MoonPay. Later on we’ll add support for PayPal, and international currency payments. This is an important step towards expanding people’s access to NFT’s since in 2021 only 23% of Americans owned cryptocurrency.
- Additionally, we’ll offer a 14 day return policy for NFTs, which will discourage art theft and NFT scammers since they won’t be able to get away with money easily if we escrow payments.
When will you release your mobile app and how will it help digital artists?
- Shortly after we launch our MVP we’ll start working on a location based mobile app that connects artists looking for a place to showcase their work with businesses—coffee shops, hotels, restaurants, shopping malls—looking for passive income opportunities.
- For example, a restaurant will be able to rent out its wall space to an artist. When the artwork sells the restaurant gets a cut of the sale. You can think of this as expanding our website’s real estate or alternatively as outsourcing our page views to physical locations with unique foot traffic. This will maximize the probability of generating a sale for an artist, whether they sell physical artworks or NFTs.
- Additionally, NFTs will be showcased using Looking Glass displays and Leap Motion Controllers. This will allow us to have 3D holographic NFTs as well as interactive NFTs in real world locations. We plan to launch this app in the first half of 2023.
Why should I buy NFTs from Curci Art when you start selling them?
- Most NFTs that are listed for sale on other marketplaces never sell, and when they do they usually sell at very low prices. In 2021 more than 50% of recorded NFT sales were less than $200, and only tiny fraction of NFTs fetched extraordinarily high prices. The problem with NFTs that command high prices on other marketplaces is that their value isn’t based on anything, and a lot of them are sold at auction. If the only factor for determining an NFT’s value is who can pay the highest price that doesn’t tell you whether the artwork is any good or not. Is this artist pushing the boundaries of what art can be? Are they making a significant cultural contribution to humanity?
- If an artwork is going to be valued at a high price it should be based on concrete metrics like the demand for that artist’s work and the consensus among experts regarding an artist’s contributions to the fine art community. People with degrees in art history or curatorial studies have better visual literacy, and therefore can weigh in on an artwork’s quality or significance. If you want to own NFTs that will retain their value and last a lifetime buy on Curci Art.
Why do you require identify verification for certain buyers?
If you wish to purchase an artwork that’s valued at $10,000 or more we’ll need to verify your identity. We do this to comply with anti money laundering (AML) laws. We only need to verify your identity once, after which you may purchase high value artworks as often as you like.
How will you verify my identity?
We use Stripe to safely automate ID verification. You may use your driver’s license, passport or SS number to verify your identity. Stripe safely and securely stores your information. None of your sensitive information is stored on our database.