There is evidence there is a global gender price gap in traditional global art auctions. Taking into account recent technological advances in the secondary art market, this study examines if there is a gender gap for the sale prices of female artists’ work in the contemporary, online art auction market. The analysis uses a unique data set of art works sold in Christie’s Online-Only Auctions for the year of 2018. We regress measures of price on gender and controls for various characteristics of the art work and artist. We find that while there is discount in prices of 17% for artwork created by female artists, further analysis indicates the difference is not necessarily the result of bidder’s biased prices, but rather rooted in the pre-sale estimates given by the auction houses.

This paper explores the determinants of the number of bidders and final price of 1900s oil paintings auctioned by resellers or dealers on eBay art auctions. We find that starting price has negative effect on bidder’s decision whether to enter the auctions or not while seller reputation variables such as seller´s feedback, being top rate seller has a positive effect. Furthermore, auction theory is introduced to study the bidder´s behavior through auction characteristics and final price. We find that, interestingly, the seller´s reputation variables have no significant effect to the final price and the number of bidders has positive effect toward final price of art work. This evidence means that art auctions on eBay has a private value auctions characteristic. However, some specific characteristics of online auctions, which are the last minute bidding and the presence of experienced bidders, significantly affect the final price. Being an experienced winner or using last minute bidding as a strategy substantially pay more than inexperienced winners or winners who do not use last minute bidding in auctioned painting. This could result from different preference of bidders toward auctioned painting or information on which each bidder is holding.

The contemporary fine art auction house is a space where aesthetics and commerce merge into a spectacular experience. Sotheby's, London is one example of an auction house turned entertainment space, which masks its blatant capitalist tendencies through the replication of validated cultural institutions. The auction house mimics museum and theatre space in order to create a legitimate social and cultural experience for its clients. Every aspect of the auction event is choreographed to generate demand for its art and an authentic experience for its patrons. Individuals with the approved educational and economical background have access to these constructed locations, and attend the auction performance to purchase social status in conjunction with the art. As a result of this, Sotheby's effectively transforms economic capital into class acceptance through its spectacular space and legitimized cultural events.

No description available.

The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate the viability of sculpture as a potential alternative investment. This goal is achieved through partly assessing the market quality of the auction market for sculptures and partly by studying their long-run diversification potential. The assessment of the sculpture market quality, together with the long-run co-movement analysis are objectives met through conducting four individual studies. In Paper I, I find that auction house art experts' relative estimate range positively affects realized prices. The effect is robust across the mid- low- and high-end segments of the international sculpture market. Interpreting the art experts' price estimate range as a proxy for the prevailing divergence of investor opinion in the art market, the findings are consistent with the disagreement model of Miller (1977). This evidence is contradictory to the predictions of the general auction model in Milgrom (1982) and does not lend support to the interpretation of the price estimate range as a proxy only for uncertainty. Moreover, the study gives insight into the price determinants of sculpture using a unique large dataset of over 65,000 sculpture sales at international auctions. Paper II is the first study to find evidence of a home bias in prices of art sold at international art auctions. All else equal, art prices are higher when they are auctioned in the home country of the artist compared to outside of the artist's home country. Moreover, the home bias in prices is more pronounced in the low-end sculpture market segment than in the high-end segment, indicating that familiarity can be a potential explanation of the bias. Furthermore, the home bias is found to be partly related to patriotism. The findings indicate that the home bias in prices increases as the relative level of patriotism rises in the home country of the artist, and that patriotism is a more persistent source of the home bias in art prices than familiarity. Paper III examines the absolute and time-varying weak-form market efficiency of the international sculpture auction market. The results indicate that the sculpture market efficiency varies over time lending support to the Adaptive Markets Hypothesis. Moreover, I find that the times of peaking relative market inefficiency coincide with distress in the wider economy and financial markets. Additionally, I find evidence that auction house art experts' pre-sale estimate accuracy Granger causes developments in time-varying market efficiency, highlighting the importance of art experts. Paper IV analyzes the dynamic relationship between the international sculpture market and the traditional financial investments during the period 1985-2013. Three international sculpture price indices are constructed to proxy for the general sculpture market price movements along with the low- and high-end segments of the international sculpture market. The results show that price development in the sculpture market does not move together with government bond prices in the long run. When it comes to equity markets, I find significant cointegrated dynamics between sculpture indices and the world equity markets. On the other hand, there is no such relationship when the S&P 500 is considered. Furthermore, cointegration is detected when analyzing the sculpture markets with the world GDP per capita. Granger-causality tests reveal that sculpture prices, in general, are Granger-caused by GDP per capita. Moreover, the Granger-causality tests indicate that sculpture price developments follow the world equity price movements, but not those of the S&P 500.

The present diploma thesis deals with international art trade. It is divided into four chapters. The first chapter introduces key market agents and describes briefly the art market history. It also shortly evaluates the current market situation. The second chapter describes major international art trade centers and analyses key market patterns and electronic trading. The third chapter provides overview of regulations and rules at the US, EU, and Chinese art markets. The last chapter compares investment into art with selected other investment options. This chapter includes also a case study concerning Picasso's late works on paper. The theoretical part of the thesis aims to provide comprehensive overview of the international art trade. The objective of the case study is to analyze evolution of a narrowly defined art market segment in a given period and to compare it with the development of global art market and also with the presumptions resulting from the theoretical part. The other objective of the case study is to compare the return on investment of this art market segment with respect to the S&P 500 shares and gold.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The value of art is a critical concept in theoretical discourse. As a result, the high prices of artworks on auctions pose questions about the various processes of value construction and the status of art in these processes. This thesis adopts a sociological approach to the construction of value of art on South African auctions. This approach is situated within a socio-historical perspective, which introduces the various social structures and conditions of cultural production. The main premise of this approach is that a multiplicity of social and cultural influences permeates the art market, its processes and structures, and therefore the determination of value. This research therefore indicates that the value of art on auction is socially constructed. As such, the value of an artwork does not reside in itself, but is produced (and constantly reproduced) through processes that are subject to the codes and conventions of the art world. Within the context of the art market, artworks function as commodities for economic exchange. Since economic exchange is socially and culturally situated, the distinctive ways in which art auctions in South Africa (as a market intermediary) encompass certain social and cultural processes, is also explored. To asses the various factors that influence the value and exchange of artworks on auction, the study introduces the Components of Value Model. The Aesthetic and Historical Factors; the Supporting Documentation and Material Attributes of an artwork, as well as the Financial and Economic Factors collectively indicate that values are, first and foremost, social categories. The value of art on auction is therefore a socially constructed value. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die waarde van kuns is ‘n kritiese konesep in teoretiese gesprekvoering. Na aanleiding van die hoë pryse wat kunswerke op Suid-Afrikaanse veilings behaal, word verskeie vrae gevolglik gestel rondom die verskillende prosesse van waarde samestelling en die status van kuns in hierdie prosesse. Hierdie verhandeling neem ‘n sosiologiese benadering aan tot die samestelling van die waarde van kuns op veilings. Dié benadering is gesetel binne ‘n sosio-historiese perspektief wat verskeie sosiale strukture en voorwaardes van kulturele-produksie inlei. Die hoof premis van hierdie benadering is dat ‘n aantal sosiale en kulturele invloede die kunsmark se prosesse en trukture deurweek, en gevolglik ook die bepaling van waarde. Hierdie navorsing kom dus tot die gevolgtrekking dat die waarde van kuns op veilings sosiaal geskep word. Gevolglik is die waarde van kuns nie intrinsiek nie, maar word geproduseer (en aanhoudend geherproduseer) deur prosesse wat onderhewig is aan die kodes en konvensies van die kunswêreld. Binne die konteks van die kunsmark, funksioneer kunswerke bloot as kommoditeite vir ekonomiese verhandeling. Omdat ekonomiese vehandeling sosiaal en kultureel gesetel is, word die eiesoortige wyse van hoe kunsveilings (as ‘n marktussenganger) sekere sosiale en kulturele prosesse omvat, ook ondersoek. Om die veskeie faktore wat die waarde van kunswerke op veilings beïnvloed te ondersoek, word die ‘Komponente van Waarde Model’ ingebring. Gevolglik dui die Esteties- en Historiese Faktore; Ondersteunende Dokumentasie en Materiële Eienskappe van kunswerke asook die Finansiële en Ekonomiese Faktore gesamantlik aan dat waardes hoofsaaklik sosiale kategorieë is. Die waarde van kuns op veiling is gevolglik sosiaal gekonstrueer.