Ian Bunn | Political & Popular Culture Arts

Sarah Thornton the British Canadian writer and sociologist of culture, writing principally about art, artists and the art market, has detailed a list of the top ten reasons from potentially ‘hundreds’ of reasons for her decision to quit the art market beat. Blouin Artinfo has reprinted two of the reasons, being (A) It enables manipulators to publicize the artists whose prices they spike at auction. Tightknit cabals of dealers and speculative collectors count on the fact that you will report record prices without being able to reveal the collusion behind how they were achieved. …It’s a shame when good artists’ careers are made volatile by speculation.  And (B) Oligarchs and dictators are not cool. I have no problem with rich people. (Some of my best friends are high net worth individuals!) But amongst the biggest spenders in the art market right now are people who have made their money in non-democracies with horrendous human rights records. Their expertise in rising to the top of a corrupt system gives punch to the term “filthy lucre.” However, the astronomical prices paid by these guys do have a positive trickle-down effect. When they buy a Gerhard Richter for $20m, the consignor of the painting will likely re-invest some of their profit in younger art (particularly if they are American and keen to defer capital gains tax). These Russian, Arab and Chinese collectors bring liquidity to the art world and allow more artists, curators and critics to make a living in relation to art.”

Inspired by Blouin ArtInfo ow.ly/fKgvH image source ow.ly/fKgrd

Georgina Adam the UK Freelance journalist who writes about the art market and museums has published an article on the world of art advisers and their rise over the past decade from an educative role to now one that often stands between the collector and the dealer. Adams states that dealers now rarely have direct contact with the collector, the art advisor generally seeking out the potential purchase of the best work at the best price for the principal. In order to maintain the integrity of the art piece, some dealers will not sell to unknown persons, preferring to deal with advisors of repute to whom they know and trust to place works in notable collections. The down side of the advisor’s intrusion however is homogenization of collections with specific artists.

Inspired by Georgina Adam http://ow.ly/5XBwW image source twitter http://ow.ly/5XBIh