News
37% of Major Galleries Cut Staff During the Pandemic
A new survey by Art Basel and UBS that looks at the pandemic’s impact on galleries found sizable staff cuts, including at galleries with net profits of $10 million or more.
Art Market
Books
The Mega-Dealers Who Ate the Art World
It’s abundantly clear that the present system is unsustainable.
Books
Where the Billionaire Buyers Are
In BOOM: Mad Money, Mega Dealers, and the Rise of Contemporary Art, Michael Shnayerson paints a vivid portrait of the dizzying ascent of the contemporary art market and the powerful succession of dealers responsible for its rise.
News
Does Gagosian's New Advisory Firm Create a Conflict of Interest?
Gallerists and art advisors suspect there could be ulterior motives to the industry leader's latest power play, but Gagosian would beg to differ.
Art
“Your Money Is Safe in Art”: How the Times-Sotheby Index Transformed the Art Market
In 1967, Geraldine Norman was tasked with leading an editorial collaboration between the London Times and Sotheby’s. The project galvanized the conceptualization of art as an investment asset.
In Brief
Shifting Precedent, Buyers of Art Will Now Pay Resale Royalties in France
After several appeals, the country's highest court agreed that auction houses may ask buyers to pay a levy — a decision critics say will “disrupt competition” and damage the art market.
News
Does the Art World Have a Money Laundering Problem?
Experts are not convinced that the proposed extension to the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) would effectively quash financial wrongdoing in the industry.
News
Art Dealers Could Be Under More Financial Scrutiny with New US Bill
The Bank Secrecy Act, created in 1970 to prevent money laundering in major financial institutions, could be extended to the art and antiquities market.
Art
Historical Angry Birds: Remixed "Peacock Room" Highlights Old Feud
WASHINGTON, DC — Waterston's work closely recreates Whistler's elegant chamber, but remixed into wreckage to express Whistler and Leyland's friendship, which disintegrated once Leyland laid eyes on Whistler's work.
Art
An Illustrated Guide to Auction House Terminology
What is “chandelier bidding?” How do third-party guarantees work? And what are the “three D’s?”
Books
Artists Are Not Kale: A Gallery Management Guide’s Many Failures
The it-book of summer, we were told, was Management of Art Galleries by the self-proclaimed “art market expert, serial entrepreneur, and bestselling author” Magnus Resch.
In Brief
Bank Offers Art-Buying Classes for Heirs and Heiresses
According to Bloomberg, Citigroup is hoping to prevent losses by teaching the heirs of its wealthiest bank customers how to invest in art.