Fellow appraiser Susan Tarman, ISA AM sent me an interesting link to an artnet news post, noted as a rumor that there is a possibility that Sotheby's Art Agency Partners may offer gallery advisory services. Interesting, but to me, it makes sense, especially after my previous post on re-inventing galleries. While clearly marked as rumor, so read into it what you may with caution, given the state of galleries, a group with reach like AAP could be of service to some galleries and as the post notes, it is a natural continuation of the major auction houses encroachment on gallery business and services, from private sales, to gallery investments to artist estates.
artnet news reports
Source: artnet newsTO THE RUMOR MILL!
It’s not exactly an analytical breakthrough if I tell you that the art industry is deeply troubled and, in many cases, deeply paranoid right now. A lot of people in the trade feel vulnerable. And the more vulnerable you feel, the more likely you are to lash out at any shadow that looks even vaguely threatening.
That’s why it was treated as a minor bombshell when, about two weeks ago, my colleague Kenny Schachter tossed out a few lines stating that Art Agency, Partners (AAP), the prominent art consulting firm and Sotheby’s subsidiary, “will offer up gallery advisory services” to sellers in the market’s battered middle tier. Schachter also whispered that said services would come in exchange for a fee “in the neighborhood of $250,000,” which he assessed would “bankrupt the companies that need support the most.”
The perceived scandal in this chatter stemmed from the not-uncommon belief that auction houses have been encroaching further and further into galleries’ and dealers’ territory for years now. The first flash point was the houses’ increased focus on private sales over roughly the past decade. More recently, Sotheby’s in particular has drawn scorn for acquiring AAP in the first place, before AAP attracted even more critics by providing advisory services directly to living artists and estates in 2017.
For its part, AAP has been adamant throughout these developments that its operations are meaningfully separated from Sotheby’s, and that it can work in collaborative and complementary ways with the gallery sector. AAP’s deal to co-represent the estate of Vito Acconci with Pace served as a marquee example of this possibility. (It has been reported that Pace will take sole control of the project after the recent departure of Christy MacLear, the former head of AAP’s estate management division.)
Since I’m always keen to dig into the shifting sands of the industry, I decided to follow up on the rumor with AAP co-founder Allan Schwartzman a few days after Schachter’s story went live.
Now, Schwartzman and I have no prior relationship. I just emailed him out of the blue to ask whether there was any truth at all to this incendiary nugget dropped into a volatile landscape like a tarantula into a crowded grade school classroom.
So I can’t really blame him for responding in polite yet enigmatic fashion with the following statement last Saturday:
Many vital galleries and artists in the mid-market are suffering greatly, and it looks as though survival for them is getting even harder. And while contemporary art could benefit from some focused editing, it is dangerous in general if the market becomes so ‘efficient’ that it kills off the system that nurtures and sustains living artists who are not yet, or may never be, financially dependable ‘commodities.’ Remember what Einstein said about bees? All of us who believe in the power and potential of art should feel responsible to help keep the enterprise fertile and healthy.
I think it’s fair to say that those four sentences leave a lot of room for interpretation (especially if you, like me, didn’t know what Einstein said about bees). But they definitely don’t amount to an outright denial.
As a result, Schwartzman equipped me with the primary ingredient I needed to serve up a type of art media clickbait that we’re all familiar with.
 |
No comments:
Post a Comment