http://www.nysun.com/arts/bubbles-booms-and-busts-the-art-market-in-2008/81581/
Link: Bubbles, Booms, and Busts: The Art Market in 2008 - July 10, 2008 - The New York Sun.
(...)
Most art dealers know that art buying is all about what tier of buyers you aspire to join, about establishing a self-identity and, yes, getting some publicity. The network of galleries and auction houses spends a lot of its time, money, and energy giving artworks just the right image. Remarkably, buyers support the process in the interest of coming out on top, rather than fighting it and trying to get the lower prices.
That process has long been murky to outsiders, but we have a new guide to the exotic world of dead sharks, Brillo boxes, and Jeff Koons puppy sculptures. In "The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art" (Palgrave Macmillan, 272 pages, $24.95), published earlier this year in England, and coming out in America in September, Don Thompson provides the single best guide to both the anthropology and the economics of contemporary art markets. This book is fun and fascinating on just about every page.
And as for that $12 million shark, Mr. Thompson points us to the $500 million-a-year salaries that are common in finance and hedge funds. If that's your income, the $12 million is about five days of your labor. About $20 billion of contemporary art is sold annually, which is comparable to the yearly sales of Nike. In other words, it only sounds like a lot of money. (...)
For the most part, it's money passing back and forth from one set of hands to another, like a game — and, yes, the game is fun for those who have the money to play it. Don't laugh, but we do in fact need some means of determining which of the rich people are the cool ones, and the art market surely serves that end....
