Ownership
When is a ‘work’ completed? Is it when the artist releases it for public viewing, and/or only if released for sale? What is the status of a work an artist (or a deceased artist’s estate) disowns after… Continue Reading Ownership
Authentication
Works by African-American artists have recently been achieving unprecedented interest in both museum and art-market worlds, possibly stimulated by the critical success of Tate Modern’s 2017 show ‘Soul… Continue Reading Authentication
Love & Money
There has been an unprecedented amount of media coverage of Banksy’s Girl with Balloon (2006) shredding incident since it took place at Sotheby’s London’s evening sale of contemporary art on 5 October… Continue Reading Love & Money
Reputation: Art & Artists
Last month’s column explored the fragility of the public reputation of art business professionals in the digital age, highlighting how traditional laws of defamation are invariably unfit for the purpo… Continue Reading Reputation: Art & Artists
Reputation
‘It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.’ As legendary business magnate Warren Buffet says, reputation is hard-won y… Continue Reading Reputation
Fair Deals
Cultural tourism is a rapidly growing sector of the broader tourism market and has become a thriving worldwide business. A key component of this expanding trade is art tourism that has significantly c… Continue Reading Fair Deals
Conservation Questions
Ethical practices of art conservation have become a renewed subject of debate following publication of a pre-conservation image of Salvator Mundi, c1500, which was recently attributed to Leonardo da V… Continue Reading Conservation Questions
Digital Drivers
Sales of contemporary art have increased exponentially since the global economic downturn around 2009. Recent professional art market research shows that post-war and contemporary art sales account fo… Continue Reading Digital Drivers
The ICOM Code
A new series of professional development courses aimed at mid-career curators and museum professionals was recently launched by Whitechapel Gallery in partnership with the Art Fund. Under the portfoli… Continue Reading The ICOM Code
When Collaborators Turn
Marina Abramović is being sued for breach of contract by her former artistic collaborator Ulay over works they jointly created when working and living together in Amsterdam for a dozen years: Relation… Continue Reading When Collaborators Turn