Fabulous article.
The art market (now based on auctions and mega-fairs much more than
galleries) is said to be the world's largest totally unregulated market.
But I think narcotics have been conveniently left out of that calculation!
Typically there is a large boom in the art market after stocks or other
financial assets go bust. This one has been historic and game-changing,
due to the entry on the art market of the new millionaires and
billionaires created by neoliberal globalization and the credit bubble.
Most people think it's funny and why not let their money slosh around
for a while, but from another angle, as public institutions go under,
what we're seeing is the rank corruption of aesthetic activity which
under better circumstances might have transformed perception and opened
up new solidarities.
Art expertise in China often carries little weight because
authenticators are thought to be in cahoots with a dealer or seller,
says Shin-Yi Yang, a curator in Beijing. So living artists make more
money, since they can personally assure buyers that a picture is not a
fake, he says.
Vampires enjoy the taste of hot blood!
# distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
# <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
# collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
# more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
# archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
