«I LIKE MONEY ON THE WALL»

In “Big Bucks: The Explosion of the Art Market in the 21st Century” Georgina Adam describes how today’s contemporary art boom is reshaping the business of art. Much of what goes on in the global market, worth 47 billion euros ($65 billion) in 2013 according to the European Fine Art Foundation, is not new – from the sky-high prices paid by super-wealthy collectors to market manipulation. What has changed is its global scale.

Auction houses Sotheby’s and Christie’s combined sold over $1 billion of art at their November contemporary sales alone. The genre is sizzling, growing 564 percent in value between 2004 and 2012, according to Adam. Francis Outred, head of contemporary art at Christie’s, told the author that he expects to see a work of art sell for $1 billion in his lifetime.

-Reuters