Lesson 1

• Global capitalism in the neoliberal period

  • High inequality
  • Financial instability
  • Recurrent macroeconomic crises
  • Economic elites growing power and influence
  • Commoditization of the cultural and social sectors
• State's traditional responsibilities

  Production, redistribution, and regulation have been diminished, encouraging this development
• Due to financial globalization, liquid wealth from worldwide is progressively pouring into the art sector
• Value of an artwork

  Traditionally considered aesthetic, as it evokes human emotions and prompts appreciation of natural and human beauty<|>Also become a critical investment asset during the neoliberal period, competing with stocks, bonds, real estate, and precious metals, among others, as a store of value and source of capital gains (revaluation in the value of the object)
• Speculative yearning for art has always existed in some form, but is now manifesting itself in more significant numbers and sophistication
• A small elite of very affluent individuals and families have increasingly owned the most valuable art items as a profitable asset
• Collectors are also seizing the chance to contribute to the creation and development of culture
• Globalization of the Art Sector

  • Economic globalization
  • Wealth concentration at the top
  • Advent of new economic powers like China are megatrends driving the global art market's expansion and concentration in a few countries.
• Expansion and concentration of the global art market

  1. Asian markets have become significant players

  2. Historically controlled by the West

  3. Due to accumulation of enormous wealth in China, Japan, and other economies in the region in recent decades
• Japan dominated the Asian regional art market

  1970s and 1980s, thanks to solid economic growth rates, collected assets from the rest of the globe (running balance of payments surpluses), and a booming stock and real estate market.
• Japan's economy entered a protracted period of stagnation in the early 1990s


  Reduced asset values destroying enormous amounts of financial wealth, resulting in falling sales by Japanese art galleries and auction houses
• China has experienced rapid growth for the past three decades, dating back to the 1980s
• Prominent galleries and auction houses have been established in leading Chinese cities, and the number of auction houses has sharply increased
• The United States continues to be the world's most important art market, accounting for 42% of the worldwide share value of artworks moved, 25% of art collectors, and the highest proportion of top-selling live artists in 2017
• The United States' dominance is attributed to its vast network of galleries and auction houses, as well as favorable tax and regulatory regimes for the art market
• China's proportion of global art sales was second in 2017 (21%) but dipped to 19% in 2018 when the United Kingdom eclipsed it by two percentage points
• In 2018, the combined art markets of the United States, United Kingdom, and China accounted for 84 percent of total art sales, followed by France, Germany, and Switzerland
• Artistic autonomy is a product of its unique position as a sub-sector within the global economy, not detachment from the market
• The art market is made up of commodities that are embodied by culturally technical attributes that are frequently difficult to quantify
• If artworks gain financial worth in the art market, the art market can no longer claim to be wholly distinct from the rest of the economy in terms of production, promotion, and critique
• Jennifer Thatcher claims that the 'financial crisis of the past [threel years rekindled the art world's interest in economics, revealing just how closely the art world's fortune is linked to financial markets'
• Collectors and sponsors were disappearing, and state grants were no longer guaranteed
• From the first half of the decade, the 'invisible hand' of the market, combined with Alan Greenspan's deregulatory policies, had a considerable impact on the link between art and the market
• The recognition that economics and art are intertwined is a statement that has far-reaching consequences for art as a self-governing entity
• Like the economic system, the art market revolves around inanimate items granted a degree of legitimacy, often by the monetary price an art object assumes through its exchanges within the economic sphere
• Through these exchanges, the thing may attach selling points of intellect, reputation, cultural relevance, and even resistance to itself
• Because art is essentially considered priceless, independent of the market price, if the collector assumes the role of the authoritative critic


  A conflict of interest arises in judging the symbolic significance of the artwork in question
• Art needs to retain a level of responsibility within its market to ensure that the value is established by more than just people who collect tangible artworks
• Art may be more successful in sustaining its autonomy during market swings analogous to those lately seen by decades of deregulation if the arbiters of value judgment are balanced
• While financial tools will alwavs hamper the independence of the art model, they may become increasingly important as a market and industry within a broader, global economy
• Despite being one of the most unregulated and opaque industries, the art market has become a preferred investment destination for the world's wealthiest people. 
• the yen strengthened against major Western currencies, making Western art more affordable.
• Art as a Commodity

  According to Dan Zimmerman (2012), art as a commodity incorporates ethereal notions and ideas by translating them into concrete products that can be traded, sold, and collected.
• Art is continuously operating outside of itself, engaging with outside financing sources. 
• By integrating with the global economy, art exposes itself to external value measurements such as;

  • monetary value
  • celebrity capital
  • reinterpretation through critique
  • purchase
  • sale
  • government grants
  • and any other means by which it survives.