Art as ( or equal to) cultural sophistication - new expectations of modern collectors?
In 2012, Mark Rothko's painting, entitled, 'Órange, Red, Yellow' sold for a record $86.8 million.
In his book, 'Breakfast at Sotheby's', Hook details his reflection of Modigliani's La Belle Romaine - "in 1986...it sold for $4.1 million. It was offered again at Sotheby's in November 1999 and reached $17 million. It appeared a third time in 2010 and made $69 million...By 2021 it should be worth around $210 million".
But, sometimes collecting should not always be based on the idea of gaining profit. A responsible gallerist is very careful to whom he or she sells, says Annette Hofmann, international director of Lisson Gallery: “It is crucial to say no when you know that the collector wants to buy just for investment. Our task is to protect the artists and to make sure the works find a good, serious collection.”
The changing rules of the art game, particularly those which are nurtured by gallery/collector relations and the extreme importance of public institution, ensure more and more that only a particular kind of rich have access. For example, for those with the means, opening a private collection to the public or creating a private museum can significantly increase a collector’s status.
“When I was a younger man, art was a lonely thing. No galleries, no collectors, no critics, no money. Yet, it was a golden age, for we all had nothing to lose and a vision to gain. Today it is not quite the same.”
Phillip Hook, the director and senior paintings specialitst at Sotheby's says that, in modern times, a certain sort of aquirer of art has emerged, "who is not really an art collector, but it hugely, immeasurely rich".
The value of a work of art is determined by a confusing variety of factors: market trends, fluctuations of aesthetic and art-historical fashion, the place of work within the artists oeuvre, typicality, provenance and condition. In their determination to impose order, analysts have invented art sales indicies which show that Impressionist and modern art has gone up by X percent while old masters have increased by Y percent over the same ten-year period.
Gerhard Richter, A B Still, 1986. Estimated at $20 - 30,000, 000 @ Sotheby's Contemporary Art Evening Auction. November 19th 2016.