“John—Galleries have always taken 50%. This goes way back before there

were opening receptions for an artist’s show–a practice started in the 50s;

sort of a merging of the fashion world social scene with art.

“The best analogy to what a gallery does for an artist is the real estate

broker. And those percentages are less than 10%. The bottom line as to why

the 50% is (1) tradition and (2) galleries can get away with it. It’s more

of a pimp/prostitute relationship than either party

wishes to acknowledge.”

Interesting.