The $ 12 million stuffed shark: the curious economics of contemporary art and auction houses

Abstract

Why would a very smart New York investment banker pay $12 million for the decaying, stuffed carcass of a shark? By what alchemy does Jackson Pollock's drip painting No.5 1948 sell for $140 million? And why does a leather jacket with silver chain attached, tossed in a corner and titled 'No One Ever Leaves', bring $690,000 at a 2007 Sotheby's auction? In this publication attention is given to the economics of the modern art world and the marketing strategies which power the market to produce such astronomical prices. Author talks to auction houses, dealers, and collectors to find out the source of Charles Saatchi's Midas touch, and how far a gallery like White Cube has contributed to Damien Hirst becoming the highest-earning artist in the world. He unravels the Byzantine sale procedures by which the top auction houses maintain both premium prices for what they sell and their own pre-eminence, but also shows us a market whose most spectacular excesses are driven just as often by far simpler human urges like lust and self-aggrandizement. Review in: Journal of cultural economics.33(2009)3(233-237); bespreking door Nicolas Dings in: Boekman.22(2010)84(najaar.108-109); bespreking door Joost Zwagerman in NRC Handelsblad, 15 oktober 2010.