First — and only — book explaining the nature of pricing in the primary market

Talking prices: symbolic meanings of prices on the contemporary art market

Author: Olav of Valtos
year of publication: 2007
288 pages
publisher: Princeton University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780691134031

The origins of the pricing of art can be found at the turn of the middle ages and the Renaissance: the Catholic Church in agreement with the artist set the price of the work based on the size of the painted area, number of depicted saints and their place in the biblical hierarchy. In the late nineteenth century, the merchants of French painting introduced the practice of charging "smear franc" or "franc-spot" —, depending on what is bought from the artists: post-impressionism or pointillism. 1950-х to practice the art-дилеров, but also firmly settled phrase: "Art is as much ready to pay for it".

In 1980-е years, with the formation of the art market in its present form, it is defendants first collectors, took a tool to determine a fair price. Partly this problem was solved by the appearance of Artnet and research Mey-Мозеса, but the academic approach to the study of the initial pricing rules and its further growth in the art market did not exist. To Supplement the missing segment came from Olav Feltus, associate Professor in the Department of sociology and anthropology, University of Amsterdam. Unlike his predecessors, who considered the total price of auction sales of art (where the value of visibly affected the psychology, the excitement and occasion. — AI.), Valtos turned to the private sector, responsible for pricing in the primary market.

while Working as a staff journalist for the daily Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant, Valtos knew that any complex investigation starts with an interview. In the first approximation were interviewed 240 Dutch galleries, which sold over a ten-year period, more than 16 thousand 2.4 thousand works of artists. Further, the author further applied this approach, a survey of galleries and art-дилеров in new-Йорке. Added scientific consultants economists tracked marketing mechanisms that have led to the increase or decrease in average prices for artists — and output by 2005, it's a great book called "Talking price."

what "they say prices" in the edition? First of all, about the rules of formation of gallery prices for the work of the various groups of contemporary artists —, depending on their age, education, level of fame, etc. On how price affects the reputation of the gallery — on the basis of its status, location and number of artists. An important bridge, thrown by the author from the exploration to sales at the Tuesday market, was a section devoted to the fate of contemporary artists at auction. As a historical descendant of the grandparents of the art market (the Netherlands, the XVI–XVII centuries. — AI.), Vultus isn't afraid to make references to historical facts and documents, which sometimes seem to be taken from current guidelines for art-дилеров.

With the publication of "Talking prices" the demand for Veljusa market has grown rapidly — his journalistic work has appeared in such publications as Artforum, The Art Newspaper and the Financial Times and the author himself became a frequent speakereducational programs in the framework of Art Basel. A few years ago Olav of Valtos began to study the processes of formation and development of art-рынков in the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South-Африканская Republic), however, inhibition of the development of art-рынка primary customer research (this was China, you thought is true. — AI.) action in this direction is temporarily stopped.

Olav, we're all waiting for your new book! BRICS or not, we really need one.

Denys Belkevych, AI