Saturday, July 26, 2008

The High Price of a Shiny Skull


Read the article "Bubbles, Booms, and Busts: The Art Market in 2008" in the New York Sun about the factors of pricing in the contemporary art market. An interesting piece. The follow up book that comes out this September sounds like it will be an illuminating and interesting study of the economics of contemporary art world. Lately I've been discussing with some friends what size to edition ones prints at. The advice is all over the place with no one definitive benchmark - or for that matter guiding principle. The simplest adage is "Less = More" -- "the smaller the edition + the more well known the artist = the higher the price per print". I don't think "The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art" by Don Thompson will solve the edition number dilemma. However, it does sound like it will illuminate the mind of the contemporary collector (which Thompson illustrates as a person driven by many factors including ego and often fueled with hedge fund money). I look forward to reading the book. More of the article can be read here

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