This thesis aims to document and discuss the role and legacy of the Italian antiquario Alessandro Contini Bonacossi (1878-1955) in the international secondary art market for Old Master paintings during the first half of the twentieth century. Grounded in the discovery of primary archival evidence and set against the major historical events that unfolded during his lifetime, this work presents its findings by following a research process adopted to answer the following research questions: who was Contini Bonacossi, what was his business network (where was he buying paintings, at what prices, and who were his clients), what was his modus operandi for selling and marketing his work, and what is his legacy. To answer these questions, I made extensive use of primary sources, the vast majority of which are unpublished or have never been used before in this context, framed by a contextualized analysis of their historical background. The archival investigation has brought to light, for the first time, documentary evidence of Contini Bonacossi's transactions and business ties with other European dealers such as Duveen Brothers, Heinemann Galleries, Colin Agnew, Colnaghi, Böhler, Steinmeyer, and Kleinberger Galleries; with scholars such as Wilhelm von Bode, Roberto Longhi, and Bernard Berenson; as well as previously unknown connections Contini Bonacossi had with members of the Harvard museum community and the Boston cultural elite such as Paul Sachs (1878-1965), Edward W. Forbes (1873-1969) Denmann Ross (1853-1935); and offers new details regarding his relationship with the Kress Brothers, their gifts of artworks to the new National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, and the Kress Foundation's Regional Program that endowed museums across the US. Ultimately, this work adds to our knowledge important sources for the study of the history of private and public collecting during its crucial years in the formation of American museums. More broadly, in documenting Contini Bonacossi's case, this study strives to rethink the role of art dealers, to look at them not solely as market professionals engaged in the dynamics of supply, demand and profit, but first and foremost as bearers and sellers of culture, whose activities were fully embedded in the socio-political environment of their time and so to acknowledge and extend knowledge about their active role in the international dissemination and interpretation of cultural heritage.

Este trabalho é um ponto de encontro entre dois artistas nova-iorquinos da segunda metade do século XX: Gordon Matta-Clark (Nova York, 1943-1978) e Félix González-Torres (Guaimaro, Cuba, 1957-Nova York, 1996) através de obras que se propõem como uma contradição nos termos: propriedades sem bem, ou a possibilidade de possuir um objeto materialmente inexistente. O primeiro, Gordon Matta-Clark, com a obra Propriedades Reais: Bens Fictícios, consistente na compra e registros fotográficos de bens imobiliários que, tendo seus limites marcados nas escrituras e nos mapas, não apresentam fronteiras perceptíveis no espaço físico. O segundo, Félix González-Torres com obras que encontram sua origem em Certificados de Autenticidade / Propriedade de objetos a ser manifestados, isto é, construídos pelo dono da peça ou por aquele que pedir emprestado o direito de montá-la. Propriedades sem bem que -- enxergadas por Matta-Clark na década de 70, e construídas por González-Torres na década de 90 --, abrem um leque de questionamentos sobre temas básicos de uma sociedade baseada no intercâmbio e na acumulação. A saber, a burocracia, o valor de troca e a noção de propriedade que, mais do que consistir em um objeto a ser possuído, consiste em um convênio a ser respeitado. Pacto ancorado em um complexo andaime econômico e legal, de números e de letras, que os dois artistas, desde cantos diferentes, percorrem até suas últimas consequências. Este texto é a história desse percurso. / This work is a meeting point between two artists of the second half of the twentieth century: Gordon Matta-Clark (New York, 1943-1978) and Felix Gonzalez-Torres (Guaimaro, Cuba, 1957-New York, 1996). The connection is established through works that are proposed as a contradiction in terms: properties without physical goods, or the possibility of owning one thing that does not exist in a material way. The first, Gordon Matta-Clark, with the work Reality Properties: Fake Estates, consists of the purchase and photographical registers of real estates, with their boundaries, marked in the deeds and maps, shows no discernible physical space. The second, Félix González-Torres, with works that find their origin in Certificates of Authenticity / Property of objects to be manifested, that is, built by the owner of the piece or by the one who borrows the right to assemble it. Properties without goods that - sighted by Matta-Clark in the 70s and constructed by González-Torres in the 90s - opens a range of questions about basic themes of a society founded on exchange and accumulation. Specifically: bureaucracy, exchange value and the notion of property that consists of more than an object to be possessed, a covenant to be respected. Covenant deals anchored on a complex economic and legal structure -numbers and letters- that both artists explore to the ultimate consequences. This text is the story of that exploration.

This thesis aims to analyze contemporary art market in terms of auction sales carried out bySotheby’s and Christie’s in London and New York in 2007 and 2009. The study deals withinvestigating the cases when artworks’ prices exceeded their estimates. A model testing therelationships between hammer price, auction house, artist, form of art, the year of object’screation and its current owner along with the year of sale and performance of stock marketwas developed according to the theoretical framework, which includes such concepts as artobjects and their value, gatekeepers and investment and auction theories. Regression analysis revealed that the presence of a pre-lot note published in auctioncatalogue and specifying the collector putting the artwork for sale and the year of art piececreation have a significant contribution to predicting their hammer price. Moreover, theanalysis identified that paintings and sculptures typically reach high prices while drawings,watercolors and gouaches appeared to be less expensive objects. As far as the artists areconcerned, the study showed that pieces by such top artists as Andy Warhol, Jean-MichelBasquiat, Gerhard Richter, Willem de Kooning and Jeff Koons tend to achieve outstandingresults more often. The cases of over-performance were identified according to the model, which provided anopportunity to estimate predicted hammer price and compare it to the one achieved duringthe sale. Analysis did not reveal a clear pattern among over-performers, however, it can beobserved that objects sold at Sotheby’s tend to over-perform slightly more often; AndyWarhol and Damien Hirst appeared to be the artists whose artworks reach prices higherthan the estimates; and watercolors, drawings and gouaches along with sculptures, statuesand figures and photographs and prints turned out to be the over-performing forms of art.

<p>Marinus Van Reymerswaele's painting of 1542, <italic>The Lawyer's Office</italic>, was a completely new type of image in the history of art. It shows a lawyer and his assistant behind a desk strewn with briefs, wax seals and money. A complex set of historical circumstances at the interface of art, economics, and legal history in sixteenth century Antwerp explain this painting's appearance and significance. In the beginning of the sixteenth century, Antwerp became a locus of unprecedented artistic production caused by the dramatic growth of its mercantile population, its highly organized commercial infrastructure, and its competitive business atmosphere. These developments stimulated a new sophistication in the art market and an energetic approach to acquiring and collecting, supported by publicly-funded venues to mass-market paintings. Over the course of the sixteenth century, artists invented new subjects to meet public demand. Many of these were radically new. One of these artists, Marinus Van Reymerswaele (c. 1490-1546) made distinctive paintings of lawyers, bankers, and moneychangers which relate to fundamental changes in the legal and commercial infrastructure in the sixteenth century. In just one generation, the Habsburg authority centralized the political and legal landscape in the Netherlands. As the prized economic and cultural center of Habsburg territories, Antwerp was transformed. </p><p>This dissertation links the development of consumption practices and the rise of new pictorial subjects introduced in Antwerp with the changing business and legal climate of the city during the sixteenth century. Through an investigation of unpublished home inventories recorded between 1528 and 1588, it clarifies the acquisition preferences of the Antwerp public at large, considering both changing preferences for panel and linen paintings as well as for novel and traditional images alike. This reassessment of painting consumption reveals a starkly more conservative approach to buying images than previously assumed, underscoring the rarity of everyday life subjects in Antwerp domestic spaces. As a painter operating within this market, Marinus van Reymerswaele invented a new brand of painting -- the new old master painting -- that not only addressed broad social concerns sparked by Habsburg political, mercantile, and legal reforms, but also built on long-established Netherlandish visual traditions. As the sixteenth century drew to a close, his paintings became more desired by collectors but lost their topicality as memories of Antwerp's political anxieties faded into the past.</p> / Dissertation

Contemporary art market in China has influenced Taiwan¡¦s art market recently. The number of auction houses and new art galleries has been increased in Taiwan. The researcher discovered that the work of New Media Art has represented by galleries gradually. However, the sale of work of New Media Art is still limited. The reason is that the work of New Media Art lacks of physical form, and it can be easily replicated, which is contradicting to the traditional collectors¡¦ perspectives. This research attempts to understand how the New Media Art be promoted through galleries¡¦ perspectives. Three questions are raised in this research: First, How is the partnership between galleries and new media artists? And what service galleries provide to the collectors? Second, how galleries manage the product of New Media Art? And how it is different from managing other traditional art works? Third, how galleries interact with external environment, such as competitors, governments, enterprises, museums, academic departments, curators and auction houses? And how these environmental factors influence galleries while managing the work of New Media Art? Cross-case studies are used as the research methodology. Eleven galleries were interviewed, including East Gallery, IT Park, Lin & Keng Gallery, Galerie Grand Siecle, Main Trend Gallery, AKI Gallery, Chi-Wen Gallery, VT Artsalon, Soka Contemporary Space, Project Fulfill Art Space, and Gallery 100 (by establishing time). Methods of data collection include observation, document analysis and interviews. Triangulation is used to increase the credibility and trustworthiness. In conclusion, this research shows the New Media Art is still one of the commodities that the galleries sell. In order to respond to variable formats of New Media Art, galleries need to take different actions to promote them. Few suggestions are generated from this research: First, the work of New Media Art can easily be replicated; therefore, the government should assist to develop more effective technology to prevent the work be duplicated. Second, solving the restriction on the circulation of knowledge by promoting the concept of copy left. Third, galleries should have a more clear policy in consignment and licensing. Fourth, encouraging hi-tech corporations to sponsor hardware, and be responsible for equipment repairing. Galleries will only need to responsible for software of the work. Fifth, art education is good way to increase consumers¡¦ understanding on New Media Art. Galleries should connect with the museums effectively. Sixth, curators involve in commercial art galleries improve the value of the exhibitions. Galleries and curators should work on the details of cooperation. Seventh, galleries should host hung events in order to improve the interaction with communities. Eighth, while the Taiwanese contemporary art market is developing, galleries should monitor the quality of art, and develop long-term career path for artists.

Throughout their history in America, museums, including those of art, have adapted according to their environment. One result of this adaptability is that objects in art museum collections are not as permanent as those outside the museum field tend to believe. As scholarship, funding, and audiences change, objects which at one time were considered pertinent to a museum collection may be deaccessioned, the term used for when a museum removes an accessioned object from its permanent collection. Yet deaccessioning in America tended to remain the exception, rather than the rule, until the last three decades of the twentieth century. How deaccessioning became a normal element of collections management in the late twentieth century can be understood as a consequence of a number of factors, including a change in the institutional and economic climate in which art museums operated. Examining some of the factors leading to the normalization of deaccessioning, at least for those in the museum community, can help us better understand the implications of such a shift.

This paper examines the connection between art and nationalism in Chinese culture and asserts that the recent market boom and price jump in Chinese fine art reflects a concerted yet conflicted effort by the Chinese government and Chinese society as a whole to reconcile with a problematic twentieth-century past. The paper first delves into the historical practice of utilizing art to construct political narratives though Ming-Qing dynasties before examining how antiquarianism was utilized by Mao Zedong himself and by the modern day Chines Communist Party.

Este trabalho possui como tema o mercado da arte em Porto Alegre entre as décadas de 1990 e 2000, com foco no que denominamos de mercado da arte contemporânea. Volta-se a uma abordagem a partir do produtor primário, em outras palavras, o artista. Ou seja, na tríade “produtor, intermediários e consumidor”, a perspectiva adotada está centrada no produtor. Possui como objetivo averiguar e compreender as mais variadas mercadorias produzidas e comercializadas pelos artistas, assim como sua inserção em um mercado de trabalho. Deste modo, esta pesquisa não se limita a considerar somente o processo de compra e venda de obras, mas se propõe a entender e refletir sobre como os artistas participam de um processo produtivo e mercadológico entre 1990 e 2012 em Porto Alegre. Para tal entendimento, constitui-se uma pesquisa interdisciplinar entre arte, sociologia e economia, tendo como aporte teórico Pierre Bourdieu, Domenico de Masi, Michael Hardt, André Gorz e Maurizio Lazzarato. A pesquisa foi constituída a partir de três vertentes. A primeira, via entrevistas com atores locais do campo artístico (artistas, colecionadores, galerista, curadores, professores universitários). A segunda, através de enquete disponibilizada e divulgada via internet, que pretendeu atingir o maior número possível de agentes locais. A terceira, por meio de revisões bibliográficas a respeito da estrutura e história de um sistema artístico e seu mercado em Porto Alegre. Assim, esta proposição discute a condição do artista inserido em um sistema artístico, produtivo, mercadológico e seus meios de aquisição de capital financeiro, simbólico e de permanência no campo. / The theme of this work is the art market in Porto Alegre between the decades of 1990 and 2000, focusing on what we call contemporary art market. Its approach is on the primary producer, in other words, the artist. I.e., in the triad "producer, middlemen and consumers", the adopted perspective is centered on the producer. It is aimed at finding out and understanding the various goods produced and marketed by the artists, as well as their insertion in a labor market. Thus, this research is not limited to considering only the process of buying and selling works, but it aims to understand how artists participate in a production and a marketing process between 1990 and 2012 in Porto Alegre. For such understanding, it constitutes an interdisciplinary research between art, sociology and economics, having as theoretical basis Pierre Bourdieu, Domenico de Masi, Michael Hardt, André Gorz and Maurizio Lazzarato. The research has three strands. The first one, via interviews with agents from the local field (artists, collectors, gallery owners, curators, university professors). The second one, through a survey available and disseminated via the Internet, which sought to reach the largest possible number of local agents. The third one, through literature reviews on the structure and history of an art system and its market in Porto Alegre. Thus, this proposition discusses the status of the artist inserted into an artistic, productive and marketing system and their means of acquisition of financial, symbolic and permanence capital in the field.

Este trabalho possui como tema o mercado da arte em Porto Alegre entre as décadas de 1990 e 2000, com foco no que denominamos de mercado da arte contemporânea. Volta-se a uma abordagem a partir do produtor primário, em outras palavras, o artista. Ou seja, na tríade “produtor, intermediários e consumidor”, a perspectiva adotada está centrada no produtor. Possui como objetivo averiguar e compreender as mais variadas mercadorias produzidas e comercializadas pelos artistas, assim como sua inserção em um mercado de trabalho. Deste modo, esta pesquisa não se limita a considerar somente o processo de compra e venda de obras, mas se propõe a entender e refletir sobre como os artistas participam de um processo produtivo e mercadológico entre 1990 e 2012 em Porto Alegre. Para tal entendimento, constitui-se uma pesquisa interdisciplinar entre arte, sociologia e economia, tendo como aporte teórico Pierre Bourdieu, Domenico de Masi, Michael Hardt, André Gorz e Maurizio Lazzarato. A pesquisa foi constituída a partir de três vertentes. A primeira, via entrevistas com atores locais do campo artístico (artistas, colecionadores, galerista, curadores, professores universitários). A segunda, através de enquete disponibilizada e divulgada via internet, que pretendeu atingir o maior número possível de agentes locais. A terceira, por meio de revisões bibliográficas a respeito da estrutura e história de um sistema artístico e seu mercado em Porto Alegre. Assim, esta proposição discute a condição do artista inserido em um sistema artístico, produtivo, mercadológico e seus meios de aquisição de capital financeiro, simbólico e de permanência no campo. / The theme of this work is the art market in Porto Alegre between the decades of 1990 and 2000, focusing on what we call contemporary art market. Its approach is on the primary producer, in other words, the artist. I.e., in the triad "producer, middlemen and consumers", the adopted perspective is centered on the producer. It is aimed at finding out and understanding the various goods produced and marketed by the artists, as well as their insertion in a labor market. Thus, this research is not limited to considering only the process of buying and selling works, but it aims to understand how artists participate in a production and a marketing process between 1990 and 2012 in Porto Alegre. For such understanding, it constitutes an interdisciplinary research between art, sociology and economics, having as theoretical basis Pierre Bourdieu, Domenico de Masi, Michael Hardt, André Gorz and Maurizio Lazzarato. The research has three strands. The first one, via interviews with agents from the local field (artists, collectors, gallery owners, curators, university professors). The second one, through a survey available and disseminated via the Internet, which sought to reach the largest possible number of local agents. The third one, through literature reviews on the structure and history of an art system and its market in Porto Alegre. Thus, this proposition discusses the status of the artist inserted into an artistic, productive and marketing system and their means of acquisition of financial, symbolic and permanence capital in the field.

This paper investigates the factors that influence hammer price in fine art auctions. Unlike previous studies, this thesis focuses solely on Mark Rothko’s abstract painting auction results, which eliminates pricing variation from multiple artists or painting genres. Using a freshly constructed database that covers all Rothko auction records from 1985 to 2017, this thesis affirms the presence of declining price anomaly. Auction house experts’ pre-sale estimates are shown to be largely unbiased with a marginal downward pricing tendency. Furthermore, size is a statistically significant variable that affects hammer price and Rothko’s vertical compositions are favored in the auction market.