Bidding Better Online in Belgium: The Value of Auction House Expertise during the COVID-19 Pandemic

In this article, we present our analysis of how one of Belgium’s largest auction houses has creatively dealt with the forced transition to online auctions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on in-depth qualitative interviews and participant observation conducted at Bernaerts Auctioneers in Antwerp over a period of three months between February and April 2021, we show how the auction house has succeeded at maintaining relations with its clients and the public while exclusively moving its sales online. Our specific focus was on the mediation of expertise. Drawing on recent publications from the fields of economic sociology and anthropology, we analyzed how expert narratives of origin, authenticity, and uniqueness are communicated online to affect an object’s auction value. Based on our empirical research, which also includes narrative analyses of Bernaerts Auctioneers’ internet publication Prelude, as well as content shared online via social media, we argue that expert knowledge and practices of expertise are resilient and—contrary to what neoclassical economic theory might suggest—that they continue to be central to negotiations of value, as well as in online auctions.

How Has COVID-19 Affected the Public Auction Market?

The day of the last live auction at Sotheby’s in the spring of 2020 was on 19 March 2020 as multiple coronavirus lockdowns forced auction rooms to close worldwide. In the following months, hundreds of live auctions were cancelled or postponed, and combined revenue at Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips for the second Quarter 2020 plummeted 79% year on year from USD 4.4 bn in Q2 2019 to USD 0.9 bn in Q2 2020. This article focuses on public auctions at Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips and uses primary research to demonstrate how leading auction houses responded to the unprecedented challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis. Leveraging Pi-eX’s public auction results database and its 12-month-rolling methodology, our analysis shows (1) the surge of online only auctions while the number of live auctions plummeted; (2) the limitations of online only auctions and the rise of new opportunities; and (3) a comparison of the COVID-19 crisis with previous art market crisis in the past 15 years.

NFT and digital art: new possibilities for the consumption, dissemination and preservation of contemporary works of art

Digital technology, which appeared in the '80s and consolidated itself in the following decade with what was called the “third industrial revolution”, has transformed not only our daily environment, but also the way in which we produce and experience the artistic work. Digital art, a subcategory of the so-named art of the new media, presents multiple forms and is in continual evolution, parallel to the devices which make it possible; but its commercialisation in the contemporary art market becomes complex, so digital works present a series of characteristics such as the paperless ofice, obsolescence and reproducibility which may be considered to be not particularly profitable by collectors. Despite this, in recent months the sale of some digital artworks, to which numerous texts are referred to under the name of cryptoart, have increased notably, reaching figures in the millions for the first time in auction houses. The commercial success of these pieces is due to the fact that, together with the work's archive, they include a type of cryptographic certificate, the non- fungible-tokens or NFTs, which collect the the work's data and inscribe them in a blockchain; transforming a multiple and disseminated work into a digital item that is unique and traceable, whose property can be transmitted as one would do with any other object in the offline world. Although they favour in principle the creation and sale of digital art, NFTs present their own problems, especially related to their access, use and sustainability; are NFTs a permanent tool or only a method of fleeting speculation? How does this certification affect property and the author's rights? Is it possible and will it be sustainable to employ them as a strategy for the preservation of digital works? This article carries out an analysis of the principal characteristics and problems of digital art in a general sense, as well as the solutions and preoccupations which the cryptographic certificates offer in all aspects in the life of a work of art: production, dissemination and preservation.

The Emergence of an Auction Category: Iranian Art at Christie’s Dubai, 2006–2016

The expansion of the British auction houses Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Bonhams to markets in the Middle East has played a crucial role in building an international market for art from the region. They have also been essential in providing an international platform for the sale of art from Iran, a country whose economy is otherwise isolated from global markets. In this paper, I address the growth of the market for Iranian art specifically via Christie’s auctions in Dubai. Through close analysis of auction catalogs, ethnographic data drawn from live auctions and interviews with key staff members, I document the emergence of Iranian art into the international arena and the solidification of both Iranian and Middle Eastern art as a distinct category of sales. In particular, I explore the notion of “seeing with the other eye”, a way that auction specialists nudge local collectors into the arena of “international” taste. Through analysis of the particular tropes used to narrate artist biographies in auction catalogs, I demonstrate how artists are painted as interpreters and translators of “local” and “global” aesthetic registers.

Becoming Asia’s Art Market Hub: Comparing Singapore and Hong Kong

The recent emergence of new regions in the global art market has been structured by hub cities that concentrate key actors, such as global auction houses, influential art fairs, and galleries. Both Singapore and Hong Kong have developed explicit strategies aimed at positioning themselves as Asia’s art market hub. This followed the steep rise of the Chinese art market, but also the general perception of Asia as the world’s most dynamic art market. While Hong Kong’s emergence derives from its status as gateway to the Chinese market, and has been driven by key global players, such as the auction houses Christies’ and Sotheby’s, the Art Basel fair, and mega-galleries, Singapore’s strategy has been driven by the state. At the end of the 2000s, the city identified the art market as a new growth sector, and proactively invested, by creating a cluster concentrating international galleries and supporting art fairs, art weeks, and new world-class cultural institutions. Based on comparative fieldwork, and interviews with actors of the Singapore and Hong Kong art markets, this article shows that the two cities’ distinct strategies have generated contrasted models of “cultural hubs”, and that they play complementary roles in the structuration of the region’s art market.

“Neural art” as the subject of copyright. (Review)

In recent years, specialized media have increasingly focused on the so – called “neural creativity” – works created by special algorithms. The digitalization of art is becoming more widespread, and objects created by neural networks are popular and even sold by such well-known auction houses as Christie's. However, the legal status of such “works” has not yet been determined, as well as the question of who is their author. This review examines Russian and foreign legislation and doctrine on how copyright should resolve the issues raised.

Materialising Markets: The Agency of Auctions in Emergent Art Genres in the Global South

For the last two decades, the international auction houses Sotheby’s and Christie’s have been at the forefront of global art market expansion. Their world-wide footprints have enabled auction house specialists to engage with emerging artists and aspiring collectors, most notably in the developing economies of the Global South. By establishing their sales infrastructure in new locales ahead of the traditional mechanisms of primary market commercial galleries, the international auction houses have played a foundational role in the notional construction of new genres of art. However, branding alone is not sufficient to establish these new markets; the auction houses require a network of willing supporters to facilitate and drive marketplace supply and demand, be that trans-locational art market intermediaries, local governments, and/or regional auction businesses. This paper examines emerging art auction markets in three Global South case studies. It elucidates the strategic mechanisms and networks of international and regional art auction houses in the development of specific genres of contemporary art: Hong Kong and ‘Chinese contemporary art’, Singapore and ‘Southeast Asian art’, and Australia and ‘Aboriginal art’. Through examination and comparison of these three markets, this paper draws on research conducted over the past decade to reveal an integral role played by art auctions in the expansion of broader contemporary art world infrastructure in the Global South.

Calouste Gulbenkian, His Mīnāʾī Ware, and the Changing Islamic Art Market in the Early Twentieth Century

This article aims to provide a clearer understanding of the emerging market for Islamic art in the early decades of the twentieth century through a study of the changing purchasing habits of one European collector, Calouste Gulbenkian, and specifically his acquisition of mīnāʾī ware. Such an approach allows for a coherent, focused study that engages with the leading dealers, agents, and auction houses of the time. These were located primarily in Paris and, to lesser extent, New York and London, in the key period during which the Islamic art market became a major part of the broader art and antiquities business. The main focus is on the shift from buying newly excavated fragmentary material from Armenian dealers to purchasing seemingly complete, but heavily restored, bowls from established collections sold at the leading auction houses. Each of the pieces in Gulbenkian’s collection of mīnāʾī ware is examined in detail, and a new taxonomic classification is presented for this well known, but still poorly understood, class of Islamic ceramics.

Antiquities Trafficking

This chapter addresses antiquities trafficking in four sections: the nature and extent of the harm; the structure of antiquities trafficking (considered in terms of source, transit and demand); regulation and control; and finally a discussion about antiquities trafficking as business enterprise. The historical and economic harm of antiquities trafficking is explained, and the market is examined as grey, in that looted objects are fed into legitimate supply chains in the public marketplace. The structure and main players in the antiquities market are discussed, including looters, dealers, collectors, auction houses and museums. Current systems of regulation include international treaties, domestic property and criminal laws, self-regulatory codes, and campaigns that focus on public awareness. The final section of the chapter details the techniques of neutralisation and processes of denial that characterise the way ‘business talk’ permeates the antiquities market, providing a narrative structure of justification and excuse of harmful behaviour that focuses on the benefits of international trade, private property ownership, and entrepreneurial dealing.

Looted Nigerian heritage – an interrogatory discourse around repatriation

The colonial assault on African culture and heritage culminated in the indiscriminate looting of African cultural resources, many of which are icons in public and private museums and institutions in Europe and North America. Many more are in auction houses and art galleries outside the continent. While there is no comprehensive audit of these materials, they are estimated to run into hundreds of thousands. In this paper, attempts are made to identify the different genres of looted Nigerian materials in Europe and North America. Factors that have continued to exacerbate the looting of the country’s cultural resources are identified and attempts are made to suggest possible strategies for the repatriation of these looted treasures.