Where do I get rid of art auction catalogs?

May 31, 2005 2:39 PM

I have a huge number of auction catalogs in my garage. Where can I donate/sell them?

My mother is an art appraiser, and in order to track the art market, she had a subscription to all the catalogs for the major auction houses: Southeby's, Christie's, Butterfield & Butterfield, etc. Online databases have made these catalogs obsolete, but we still have 17 banker's boxes full of them.

Pretty much all the major and minor works of a great deal of famous and not-quite-as-famous artists are reproduced in these catalogs. The catalogs are almost all 4-color, on heavy stock. I'm not especially interested in personally using them for an art project, but I'm sure that someone could do something great with them.

or, alternately, what sort of library would gladly accept them as a donation?

posted by LimePi to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

Since you are not looking for money for them, you could try freecycle.
posted by carmen at 3:25 PM on May 31, 2005

The local museum or art school will be interested.
posted by jmgorman at 3:40 PM on May 31, 2005

I love those old auction catalogs. I've seen them for sale at ordinary used bookstores, and I pick them up from time to time.
posted by interrobang at 3:49 PM on May 31, 2005

If you were in the UK I would buy them, but as it stands postage may be a problem :) I'm not sure which type of library would take them, if I were you I'd advertise them in the local paper or on ebay as collection only. You never know that someone may even be willing to have them shipped. They are worth $8-10 each at least, depending on content. If you have 17 boxes full that is a fairly significant sum.
posted by fire&wings at 5:10 PM on May 31, 2005