Why Is Art So Expensive?

00:10:58
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AocmtHefhMI

Summary

TLDRThis video from Crash Course Art History delves into the intricate relationship between art and the marketplace, revealing how economic dynamics have shaped artistic expression and consumption over time. Initially, in 15th-century Europe, art was a realm dominated by patronage where nobility would commission works. However, due to economic growth and colonial expansions in the 17th century, artists began to sell non-commissioned pieces, leading to the development of a more open art market. The introduction of art dealers furthered this trend, setting standards for artwork and making art available to a broader audience. By the 18th century, art auctions emerged, marking a shift toward consumer-focused art transactions. Today, the global art market is worth billions, driven by appraisers and auction houses, and poses challenges such as handling stolen art and fair distribution of profits. The video uses examples like "Salvador Mundi" and Banksy’s work to illustrate the market's complexity. Furthermore, it questions the ethics and sustainability of a system that largely benefits the wealthy while artists often see financial gain from only the first sale of their work. The narrative questions how the market will evolve, considering its tendency to cater to wealth but dreams of a future where art is more accessible and fairly valued.

Takeaways

  • 💎 High-value art purchases are not new; Vincent van Gogh's painting sold for $71 million.
  • 🏛 Traditional patronage allowed wealthy individuals to dictate art creation in the 15th century.
  • 💼 The 17th-century shift allowed artists more freedom with works they could sell independently.
  • 📈 Art auctions and dealers played a critical role in expanding the market beyond patronage.
  • 🔍 Provenance helps determine an artwork's legitimacy and market value.
  • 🖼 Stolen art introduces ethical and ownership challenges in determining rightful possession.
  • 💰 Most artists miss out on secondary market profits, benefitting brokers and collectors instead.
  • 🖌 The concept of art as a luxury good often overshadows its artistic and historical value.
  • 🎨 Works like Banksy's critique the lavish spending and emphasize art's ever-shifting market value.
  • 🌍 Despite historical trends favoring the rich, there's ongoing hope for a more inclusive art market.

Timeline

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    Art sales have always been driven by the wealthy, and the system has evolved over time, reflecting both artistic freedom and wealth. In the 15th century, European art was mostly commissioned through patrons, who dictated its creation. This began to shift in the 17th century with the economic rise of the Dutch Republic, where artists started selling uncommissioned work in a growing free market. This led to the emergence of art guilds and dealers, changing the dynamics of buying art and paving the way for the consumer-focused art market across Europe by the 18th century.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:10:58

    The art market is complex and can drastically increase in value as seen with the ‘Salvador Mundi’, possibly by Leonardo da Vinci, which sold for $450 million. Provenance, determining an artwork's history, plays a crucial role in pricing, complicated by pieces with dubious histories like stolen art during colonization. The market tends to benefit a small elite, often excluding artists from secondary sales profits, critiqued by artists like Banksy, who challenge the excesses of the market. Nevertheless, the market is unpredictable and continues to evolve, often maintaining the status quo of benefiting the rich.

Mind Map

Video Q&A

  • How much did a Van Gogh painting recently sell for at auction?

    A Van Gogh painting recently sold for $71 million at auction.

  • What was the system of art sales in 15th century Europe?

    Art sales in 15th century Europe were largely based on a system of patronage where nobility would commission artists.

  • How has the role of patrons evolved in the art market?

    Patrons used to have significant influence over art, dictating materials and subjects. However, over time artists gained more freedom to create independently and sell to broader markets.

  • When and how did the consumer-focused art market spread across Europe?

    A consumer-focused art market spread across Europe by the 18th century, especially in cultural hubs like London and Paris.

  • What led to the emergence of art dealers?

    The emergence of a free market led to art dealers, who would buy various artworks to sell to collectors, providing a variety of options at one place.

  • Why is provenance important in determining artwork value?

    Provenance, or the history of an artwork, is crucial in determining its value as it impacts the artwork's perceived legitimacy and historical significance.

  • What challenges arise with stolen artworks in the market?

    Stolen artworks pose challenges in identifying rightful ownership and the ethical implications of their origin, particularly when their value fluctuates over time.

  • How does the current art market affect artists?

    Most artists only profit from the initial sale of their work. Subsequent sales often benefit dealers and collectors, leaving artists out of the profit loop.

  • What impact did Banksy's art stunt have on the art market?

    Banksy's stunt, where the artwork self-destructed after auction, highlighted excessive spending and the unpredictable nature of value; ironically, it later sold for a higher price.

  • What future changes might occur in the art market?

    While the market is likely to continue benefiting wealthy collectors, there is hope for a more equitable system, with increased transparency and fairness for all participants.

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  • 00:00:00
    what would you buy with $35 million a
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    really big diamond your own airplane
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    maybe a few private islands perfectly
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    affordable but if you were hoping to NAB
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    this relatively modestly sized oil
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    painting by Vincent van Gogh I'm afraid
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    you're out of luck it recently sold at
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    auction for $71
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    million it's disappointing I know the
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    rich and Powerful have always taken up a
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    lot of space when it comes to art sales
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    even if the specifics have changed over
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    time but the history of this changing
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    Market is actually as much about
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    progress and artistic Freedom as it is
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    about wealth and Status hi I'm Sarah
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    urist green and this is Crash Course art
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    [Music]
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    history we know that art has value
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    Beyond its price tag in fact we spent
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    all of episode 6 exploring the
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    non-financial side of things but it's
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    time to acknowledge the elephant in the
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    room for better or worse money has
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    always played a major role in the art
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    World though the specific ways art has
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    been bought and sold have evolved over
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    time like if I were 15th century Italian
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    nobility and I wanted a portrait to
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    spruce up my parlor I could write a
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    letter to an artist friend of mine
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    humble brag and commission them to
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    create one I'd get a cool new painting
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    and they'd get a bag of money win-win
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    this was the system of patronage and it
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    was pretty much the way that art in
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    Europe was bought and sold for a long
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    time so patrons had a ton of power over
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    art everything from the material to the
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    technique to the subject matter it's
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    kind of like when you go to Subway and
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    commission a Sandwich Artist except
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    instead of a 6-in veggie Delight you'd
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    be ordering like the cinee Chapel
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    ceiling now Flash Forward about 200
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    years to the first half of the 17th
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    century there had been enormous economic
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    growth across Europe as the various
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    nation states expanded trade routes and
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    reaped the benefits of colonizing others
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    benefits that extended to artists too
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    for example with the creation of the
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    Dutch Republic in what's now the
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    Netherlands artists began creating
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    non-commissioned work and selling it to
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    anyone who would pay for it paintings
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    were sold at bookstores fairs and even
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    hawked by artists on the street and that
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    meant artists weren't Bound by the whims
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    of their patrons they could create what
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    they want wanted to when they wanted as
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    this free market grew art guilds gained
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    more power these associations of artists
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    established new standards for what made
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    art valuable they'd often help artists
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    set the price of a work and connect with
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    Buyers to make the sale on top of that
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    we start to see the emergence of
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    full-time art dealers these new
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    go-betweens would shop around at guilds
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    and workshops buying a variety of
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    artworks that way they could provide
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    wealthy collectors with varied options
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    all in one place and they'd sell them at
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    a higher price than they paid by the
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    dawn of the 18th century this idea of a
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    consumer focused Art Market had spread
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    across Europe including the cultural
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    hubs of London and Paris while art
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    purchases used to be more about Legacy
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    and power now they were more about what
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    was trendy collectors would often sell
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    off works when their taste changed so
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    art started Changing Hands more and more
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    often around the same time collectors
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    also began buying and selling art from
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    auction houses places like SES and
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    Christies in London were profiting
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    mightily off of art sales through the
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    18th and 19th centuries both of these
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    auction houses are still around today
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    and seemingly doing quite well throw in
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    the popularity of online auctions in the
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    21st century and you've just completed a
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    600-year speed tour of the Art Market
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    which brings us to the global Art Market
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    which is so big that it's estimated to
  • 00:03:56
    be worth over $64 billion
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    that's a lot of money and to figure out
  • 00:04:02
    where those numbers come from we rely in
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    part on appraisers the folks who do the
  • 00:04:07
    work of investigating and analyzing art
  • 00:04:10
    to come up with its value and that value
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    can change significantly from the first
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    time a pieces sold to the last let's
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    head to the drawing board behold
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    Salvadore Mundi it was allegedly created
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    for King Louis I 12 of France around
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    1500 but the artist was unknown for
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    hundreds of years in 1763 it disappeared
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    from history just Boop gone until it
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    reappeared in 1958 when it was auctioned
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    off at sbe's for a whole
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    $72 then poof gone again until it popped
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    back up in 2005 at an American estate
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    sale by this point it was in bad shape
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    the panel was infested with worms and it
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    had been painted over in a botched
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    restoration attempt but a pair of art
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    dealers bought it for a little over
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    $10,000 and took it to a professional
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    restorer as the layers of paint came off
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    they realized they had a prize on their
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    hands they were now convinced that the
  • 00:05:08
    Salvador Mundi was made by none other
  • 00:05:10
    than Leonardo da Vinci when the news
  • 00:05:13
    broke the art industry went wild in 2013
  • 00:05:17
    SBE sold the piece again this time for
  • 00:05:20
    around $75 million later that year the
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    buyer turned around and sold it for over
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    127 million and in 2017 the painting
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    turned up for auction again where it
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    sold for over 450 million the painting
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    has mostly been in storage sense except
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    for a stint when it hung inside the
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    yacht of Saudi Arabian Crown Prince
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    Muhammad bin
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    Salman to this day not everyone is
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    convinced the Salvador Mundi is entirely
  • 00:05:51
    Da Vinci's work still the suggestion
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    that it might be and the heated debate
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    around it was compelling enough to keep
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    driving up the price which goes to show
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    how important a painting's perceived
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    origin story is to determining its Price
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    art Specialists dealers and auction
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    houses keep detailed records to try to
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    determine an artwork's provenance or the
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    journey it's taken from initial creation
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    through each subsequent sale but this
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    gets especially complicated in the case
  • 00:06:20
    of stolen artworks when the Art Market
  • 00:06:22
    swelled to new heights in Europe in the
  • 00:06:24
    17th century and beyond European
  • 00:06:27
    colonialism was well underway and in
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    addition to taking control of other
  • 00:06:31
    nations they stole a whole bunch of art
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    as well take this figure for example
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    according to its provenance it belonged
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    to Jewish collector Frederick Wulf niice
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    who had to abandon it at his home in
  • 00:06:43
    Vienna when he fled the nais in 1938
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    after the war he reunited with his
  • 00:06:49
    collection and he brought the figure to
  • 00:06:51
    his new home in the US then in 1950 it
  • 00:06:55
    went to auction where it was sold into
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    another Private Collection where it
  • 00:06:59
    remained until 2019 when it showed up
  • 00:07:02
    for auction yet again but there's
  • 00:07:04
    another story one that doesn't show up
  • 00:07:06
    in the provenance this figure was carved
  • 00:07:09
    by the indigenous Maui people of New
  • 00:07:11
    Zealand we don't know the exact story of
  • 00:07:13
    how vulf niice acquired it but it was
  • 00:07:16
    likely part of a large number of
  • 00:07:18
    indigenous objects that were taken from
  • 00:07:20
    their home country transported to Europe
  • 00:07:22
    during the 19th century and sold to
  • 00:07:24
    collectors Wulf n's Maui statue went
  • 00:07:28
    through what's been described as art by
  • 00:07:31
    metamorphosis in other words it was
  • 00:07:33
    never meant to be sold as art but after
  • 00:07:36
    it was taken out of context and resold
  • 00:07:39
    it eventually became art at least in the
  • 00:07:41
    way Europeans understood it with a price
  • 00:07:44
    tag which poses difficult questions like
  • 00:07:47
    how do we reckon with an art Market
  • 00:07:49
    flooded with works that were likely
  • 00:07:51
    stolen from their original owners
  • 00:07:53
    especially when these Works have changed
  • 00:07:55
    hands so many times that it's difficult
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    to identify where might return them and
  • 00:08:00
    to whom meanwhile the stolen Works
  • 00:08:03
    Financial value may continue to grow or
  • 00:08:06
    Shrink based on the changing tastes and
  • 00:08:08
    priorities of collectors and here's
  • 00:08:11
    another tough question who does the Art
  • 00:08:13
    Market benefit many valuable pieces
  • 00:08:16
    cycle from collector to dealer to
  • 00:08:18
    auction and Back Again accumulating more
  • 00:08:21
    value along the way in what some critics
  • 00:08:24
    call the gallery industrial complex a
  • 00:08:26
    small handful of players profit
  • 00:08:28
    handsomely
  • 00:08:30
    while the majority of participants in
  • 00:08:31
    the world of art make very little this
  • 00:08:34
    includes most artists who typically only
  • 00:08:36
    see profit from the initial sale What's
  • 00:08:39
    called the primary market and not from
  • 00:08:41
    any of the sales that follow which we
  • 00:08:43
    call the secondary Market this practice
  • 00:08:45
    stretches all the way back to those
  • 00:08:47
    early Dutch art dealers in the 17th
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    century who bought works and sold them
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    for a premium contemporary artists have
  • 00:08:53
    found numerous ways to critique the
  • 00:08:55
    gallery industrial complex like check
  • 00:08:58
    out this series called fakes by the
  • 00:09:00
    cubid artist CB oo by Loosely copying
  • 00:09:03
    works that have sold for millions and
  • 00:09:05
    scrawling pointed messages across them
  • 00:09:08
    Oyo pokes fun both its status-seeking
  • 00:09:10
    collectors and the system that provides
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    luxury goods according to their whims
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    and Oyo isn't alone in his critiques
  • 00:09:19
    take the anonymous English artist Banky
  • 00:09:21
    in 2018 his work girl with balloon
  • 00:09:24
    famously self-destructed immediately
  • 00:09:26
    after selling at auction for $1.4
  • 00:09:28
    million
  • 00:09:30
    it was an intentional move meant to
  • 00:09:32
    criticize the excessive spending of the
  • 00:09:34
    Art Market but many predicted the stunt
  • 00:09:36
    would only make the painting more
  • 00:09:38
    valuable and they were right the piece
  • 00:09:41
    renamed Love is in the bin sold for
  • 00:09:43
    $25.4 million when it went to auction
  • 00:09:46
    again in
  • 00:09:47
    2021 despite or perhaps because its
  • 00:09:51
    bottom half is in pieces some critics
  • 00:09:53
    have argued that this undercut banksy's
  • 00:09:55
    Act of rebellion but others say it only
  • 00:09:58
    rein forced his original message the Art
  • 00:10:01
    Market can be a wild and recklessly
  • 00:10:04
    lavish
  • 00:10:06
    Place we've seen that the Art Market has
  • 00:10:09
    never been static and it's sure to keep
  • 00:10:11
    changing in the centuries to come is it
  • 00:10:14
    likely to continue benefiting the
  • 00:10:15
    richest of the rich history says yes but
  • 00:10:18
    a girl can always dream in the meantime
  • 00:10:21
    there's plenty of art out there that
  • 00:10:23
    sells for less than that hypothetical
  • 00:10:25
    budget of 35
  • 00:10:28
    million in our next episode we'll dive
  • 00:10:31
    into the ways that art and activism have
  • 00:10:33
    often gone handin hand I'll see you
  • 00:10:35
    there thanks for watching this episode
  • 00:10:37
    of Crash Course art history which was
  • 00:10:40
    filmed at the Indianapolis museum of art
  • 00:10:42
    at newfields and was made with the help
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    of all of these Priceless people if you
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    [Music]
Tags
  • art market
  • patronage
  • art auctions
  • art dealers
  • stolen art
  • art value
  • provenance
  • consumer market
  • wealth in art
  • art ownership