Toronto writer Don Thompson’s book The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art subjects today’s global art world to an economic analysis.

Image: akademika.no

Thompson, an economist and professor of business who regularly lectures on art, attempts to de-mystify the value of contemporary art - why such exorbitant prices (nearing $150 million) are paid for works which are, ostensibly, nothing more than paint on canvas, dead animals, unmade beds and other flights of artistic fancy…

Click on the thumbnail to read my review in Quill & Quire:

Buy the book - in our opinion a must-read - right HERE.

Ryan Mcginness’ book Sponsorship: The Fine Art of Corporate Sponsorship. Image: thegiantpeach.com

With the increasing economic slowdown in the US affecting banks and corporate sponsors of contemporary art, Anthony Haden-Guest asks whether banks will jettison their investments in the art world—their sponsorship of major events, institutions large and small?

At stake are tens of millions of dollars in funding. Read the full article from Portfolio.com, right HERE.

VoCA wonders what the ramifications will be here in Canada.

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…says Carol Vogel in the New York Times. Dasha Zhukova, the 27-year-old girlfriend of mega collector Roman Abramovich is set to open a new contemporary art space in Moscow. The Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture already features an enormous installation by (VoCA favorite) Montreal’s Rafael Lozano-Hemmer.

A light installation by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer in the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture in Moscow.
Image: nytimes.com

Check out our interview with him HERE.

Read Vogel’s article HERE and FlashArt’s take HERE

So…is art a wise investment or not?

Commercial galleries and auction houses would certainly have you believe so - and they have the skyrocketing sales to prove it. The much-ballyhooed ‘crash’ has so far failed to materialize.

Kim Dorland, Yellow Dress, 2007. Image: kimdorland.com - A wise investment?

And yet as far as many wealth managers are concerned, “The conventional wisdom is that art collecting should not be viewed primarily as an investment. Robert C. Elliott, senior managing director at Bessemer Trust, says, “Bessemer counsels clients to treat art as a passion investment, rather than as an investment whose primary function is to produce an attractive return.”

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“Art advisory is almost like a concierge service for big collectors: sourcing works of art and suggesting what to buy and then, when to sell; bidding at auction on their behalf; advice on framing and restoration; helping clients who have agreed to loan items to a museum or gallery and completing all the paperwork that goes with that,” says Helen Macintyre, art advisor.

“Another part of my work is advising hedge funds, banks and corporations that are keen to invest in the art market, whether they have £1 million or £50 million to spend…”

Read the full article HERE

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VoCA’s fasination with British artist Damien Hirst continues with a review of Toronto author Don Thompson’s book, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art.

Check it out HERE.

Look for our review in an upcoming issue of Quill and Quire – we’ll post it on VoCA, too.

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“There are enough “recession-proof”, super-rich buyers…but the picture is less rosy at the lower end of the market…”

Read the full article from Reuters HERE

From Will Goetzmann’s website. He says: “Art is not a good diversification tool. It has been correlated to the stock market for long periods of time, and financial market moves tend to be followed by art market moves.”

Click HERE for the Art Market Insider, a good blog that offers an intriguing perspective on market activity.

…plus c’est la meme chose.

From Reuters: A Monet water-lily painting sold for 41 million pounds ($80.5 million) Tuesday, doubling the previous auction record for the artist and ensuring London’s key art market season got off to a flying start.

Claude Monet, Le Bassin aux Nympheas, 1899. Image: intermonet.com

“Le Bassin aux Nympheas” had been expected to fetch 18-24 million pounds, but after an intense bidding battle it smashed the previous Monet auction record of $41.5 million set in May…

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From James Adams in yesterday’s Globe and Mail:

“When its September, 2007, online sale resulted in gross revenues of about $600,000 on 156 lots, (Heffel Fine Art Auction House) started to think seriously about going with a separate live auction (for post-war and contemporary art) and “concentrate more on this growing component of the market,” noted Nina Kim, Heffel’s director of postwar and contemporary art…”

For the rest of the article, please click HERE.

Tom Thomson, View from a Height, Algonquin Park, Fall, 1916.
Auction Estimate: $800,000-1,200,000
Price Realized: $1,207,500

While the Canadian auction ’scene’ may seem laughable next to the inflated numbers bandied about in the U.S and the U.K these days, we are finally seeing increased interest in Canadian art since 1945, which is great because it has, for so long been terribly undervalued.

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Image: pro.corbis.com

Here’s a good article from the Washington Post on how to introduce your kids to art:

Click HERE