Private Collectors Driving the Art Market

Scott Reyburn has a very interesting piece in Bloomberg on how private collectors are now driving the art market, and not dealers and museums.  He discusses the strengths of market at the top end where trophy art above $1 million is sold, and what is called the no mans land, or the now suffering middle market. This is really nothing new, as we have seen over the past year or so where the top end of the market has flourished with numerous record prices while most everything in the tiers below have struggled and suffered.

Reyburn is reporting from the perspective of collector Adam Lindemann who he interviewed at Art Basel. It is a very interesting article to read from a market perspective.

Reyburn reports

“The value of art has changed forever. It’s never going to go back,” the New York-based collector and writer said in an interview at Art Basel in Switzerland. Lindemann is one of the thousands of collectors visiting the world’s largest fair of modern and contemporary works.

“The market has split. It’s bipolar,” said Lindemann. “There’s no middle market money any more. There’s the affordable stuff, and there’s a top tier of trophy works priced at $1 million up. Anything in between is in no man’s land.”

“Power” collectors such as Don and Mera Rubell, Dakis Joannou and Francois Pinault have changed the art market during the last decade, Lindemann said. Wealthy individuals are holding shows of emerging artists before they are discovered by dealers, striking fear into the exhibition programs of cash-strapped museums, he said.

“The private foundations have taken on such momentum that the museums are afraid of them,” said Lindemann, 48, wearing an open-necked shirt, blazer and cream slacks.

To read the full article, click HERE.