Secrets of the auction room

Kazimir Malevich
Suprematist composition (blue rectangle over purple beam) 1916
Oil on canvas 88 x 70.5 cm.
Collection of the Heirs of Kazimir Malevich

Secrets of the auction room

Want to know a bit more about art auctions and the secrets of the auction room?
Read Georgina Adam's article in FT Weekend


Published: January 2 2009 16:12 | Last updated: January 3 2009 01:44
The art market is often described as the last unregulated financial market in the world. It has remained stubbornly resistant to almost all efforts to bring transparency to its operations, which still mainly function on the basis of highly personal relations and often secretive transactions. The problem is that these transactions can today be worth tens of millions, and that art was – at least until the recent global financial crisis – increasingly touted as a “safe” alternative asset class and was even put into investment funds.
The advantage to auctions is that they have a certain democratic, or rather meritocratic, element: for new collectors, buying at auction is easier than braving the haughty froideur of some top art galleries. At auction, if you have the money you can simply bid for a work, thereby avoiding the machinations of dealers who have waiting lists for some artists and select those to whom they will sell. The auction room is also often seen as the only place where “hard” figures can be obtained, with recorded transactions visible and available to all. But even this apparently transparent process is not all that it appears. Much of what is going on is secret, one way or another. Read more... click on link above