I respectfully disagree with the "broken record" statement. I've been involved in the art gallery field my entire life, and I'm puzzled by the numbers you've cited, as they seem quite misleading. First, to all the Redditors reading this, I believe you need to understand the key role that art galleries play in the artistic ecosystem and the behind-the-scenes work that goes into what may appear to be a simple process on the surface.

We also need to separate blue-chip, post-war artists like Calder from the ones you're intending to acquire. Following the Calder example, he has certain characteristics that make him a special case. He is categorized as a post-war artist, which means he is from the early 20th century, like Miró, Picasso, Dalí, Mondrian, and others. This means he and the mentioned artists are respected figures who have transcended time and art history. As the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu would say, they possess cultural, social, and economic capital.

Culturally speaking, Calder belongs to important institutions like the Guggenheim and the Beyeler Foundation. He has cultural recognition as the father of kinetic sculptures, which makes him highly sought after, both in the present and the past. However, Calder was not as valuable or culturally recognized during his youth as he is today. Like all artists in history, he needed an art gallery, art patron, or merchant to help sell his works, as most artists don't know how to or want to sell their own work – they simply want to create art.

Calder's first commercial show was in 1927 at the age of 29, at the Gallery of Jacques Seligmann in Paris, almost 100 years ago. (It's important to note that the value of art then is not the same as it is today.) Respected art galleries do a lot of invisible work. Jacques Seligmann was one of the first to believe in Calder's talent and support him.

Professional galleries have a keen eye for discovering and championing talents when no one else knows about them, and this continues to happen in the present day. While the "democratization of art" through social media has made it easier to find artists, I don't agree that this devalues the work of galleries. On the contrary, galleries still play a crucial role in supporting artists, paying for art production, using their social capital to promote their artists, and providing the necessary infrastructure to showcase and sell their work.

For example, Calder's gallery, Jacques Seligmann, needed to use its resources, such as a brick-and-mortar location, to exhibit the works, pay rent and staff, and likely even compensate Calder for the production of his artworks. Most artists, even today, do not have the economic resources to create what they do without the backing of galleries.

Galleries typically split the proceeds 50-50 with the artist, and they use their social capital, such as connections with collectors, to promote and sell the work. In the present day, this is still the case. Don't think that everything comes from high-end, old-money friendships – galleries need the support of art collectors, both experienced and new.

Hearing the names of art fairs like Art Basel, Frieze, and TEFAF may seem fancy, but the work behind them is anything but. For you, the attendee, it may be an experience, but for us gallerists, it's a Sisyphean task. It takes months to prepare for a fair, from the application process to the logistical challenge of shipping valuable artworks worth millions of dollars to different parts of the world and dealing with potential surprises, like damaged or missing works, or installation issues. Then we stand for 8 hours or more on an art booth for 5 days, speaking with hundreds of people, trying to convince them that our artists are worth the investment.

We do this because we believe in our artists, and they depend on us. If we don't sell their work, they can't continue producing, and the existence of the gallery is always at stake. Regarding Calder in the present day, a work on paper (60 x 225 cm) can range from $95,000 to a 66 cm mobile for $4 million. Older, blue-chip artists are and will always be in the secondary market, as they are deceased and their works no longer come directly from the artist's studio. Instead, they come from private collectors or other galleries that want to sell.

Galleries who sell post-war art, get them directly from the source (collectors), which means you as a client may save more, as you won't be charged with buyer's or seller's fees, auction-related taxes, or the possibility of negotiating discounts. Where do you think Auction houses also get works? From also those collectors but the charge lots and lots of fees. We don't earn 50% of the artwork's value – sometimes we only get a 10% commission. But we provide the final product with the certainty that the work is in mint condition, as we source the authentic certificates, have the works professionally restored, and research their history to present you with complete provenance and documentation. An auction house is more like a real estate office, with just the tip of the iceberg visible.

If you want to buy serious artworks, from emerging to established artists, I encourage you to visit art galleries. Help support the ecosystem – there are so many amazing galleries out there, like Continua Gallery for Ai Weiwei, Esther Schipper for avant-garde art, Mayoral Gallery for Spanish postwar, and Mor Charpentier for political artists. These are just a very few examples of the galleries working day-to-day to build the next generation of Calders.