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Talking Prices
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Talking Prices

Symbolic Meanings of Prices on the Market for Contemporary Art

Olav Velthuis
Princeton UP, 2005

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative

Recommendation

Getting a handle on the economics of the art market is much like grabbing smoke. Dealers are loath to discuss the financial side of their business and the private nature of their transactions frustrates researchers. Even the ostensibly open world of auctions is full of slippery practices. None of that deterred Olav Velthuis, whose exhaustive research into the art market yields a fascinating economic analysis. He explores the anticommercial bias of dealers and even finds some tangible factors that influence art prices. While impressive, Velthuis' work would have benefited from a more conversational, less academic tone. His fascinating price study, for instance, focuses on "coefficients" and "t-values" rather than on actual prices. Still, getAbstract recommends this study for its ambitious and intriguing attempt to shed light on a little-known corner of the economy.

Summary

An Antimarket Marketplace

With its reputation for glamour and big-dollar deals, the art world fits anyone's definition of a high-stakes marketplace. A Pablo Picasso painting sold at auction in 2004 for $104 million. And from 1987 through 2004, auction houses Sotheby's and Christie's sold 10 paintings created by Picasso, Vincent van Gogh and other gold-plated artists for $50 million each or more. However, beyond the famous names, the art market has distinct philosophies about selling and valuing its product. At the big auction houses, the purchase of art is a distinctly commercial venture, an activity where the biggest deals get the most attention. Yet, the big-name auction houses, in spite of their high profiles, are only one part of the art market.

A collector who wants to be the first to own a work of art will turn to the "avant-garde" galleries. These contemporary art galleries have an anticommercial bent that provides a stark contrast to the dollar signs that dominate auctions. Walk into any highbrow gallery in Amsterdam or New York to browse, and you're unlikely to see a price tag. Indeed, you probably would not just happen upon one of these galleries while window...

About the Author

Olav Velthuis has been an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Konstanz and a visiting scholar at Princeton and Columbia Universities. He writes about economics for the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant.

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