One of our contents specialists recently provided assistance with the valuation of a Cibachrome photographic print. Cibachrome is an older, non-digital photo print process. Production involves a slide negative and special photo paper, resulting in some of the most beautiful color prints in all of art photography.

As background, many elite photographers work in very small editions. Andreas Gursky, for example, often produces editions of six prints; Cindy Sherman has been known to produce ten in an edition. The Visual Artist's Rights Act (VARA), which protects artists' rights in the United States, only considers editions of 200 or fewer to be worthy of legal protection.

In this particular case, a policyholder owned a large-scale Cibachrome, or “C-print,” by a photographer who creates dramatic color landscapes. As much as I admire many of the photographer's images, which are truly spectacular, I am also in awe of his business model. He sells his photography in the swank galleries he owns. All of these galleries are located in glitzy locations, such as Las Vegas, Hawaii, New York City, Miami, and Aspen—to name but a few. By selling his photography exclusively through these galleries, he retains absolute control over the retail pricing of his art photography. All of the sales personnel are also the photographer/owner's employees, meaning that he ultimately controls the manner in which sales approaches prospective buyers and leverages various sizes and editions of the same prints to control the value of the prints.