Reddit mentions of The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art

In the contemporary art market, a piece becomes "worth" whatever people are willing to pay for it. There is no inherent "worth" of any art (aside from the materials for something like a Damien Hirst diamond skull) - so the price ultimately drives its arbitrary "worth."

The art market is inherently irrational and entirely deregulated. Due mostly to a complex form of branding, seemingly ridiculous and useless pieces of art fetch millions simply because investors/buyers collectively believe it will retain this value.

I highly recommend the book The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art

Don Thompson wrote an excellent book on the topic: The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art.

TL;DR: contemporary artists (and the prices the successful ones' work commands) aren't discovered, they're manufactured.

Used to be a regional rep for a major fine art auction house.

The reason that the identity of Banksy isn't known is that Banksy is a contrived concept created by a network of art dealers. There doesn't have to actually be a specific person. Yes, someone makes the art (or a group of people), but attributing the work to a particular real-life human being is unnecessary. Pros for the art dealers include not having to pay 50% of the profit to the artist, and the dealers don't have to worry about the issues they've had with other people, like if an artist dies young or creates a PR problem that impedes the market for the product. (Eg: We squeezed works out of people like Jean-Michel Basquiat, but when the guy dies young, it just doesn't pay off like someone who could have produced 10x the amount of work.) Oh, and no...having limited amount of work isn't better in an enormous and hungry world art market.

The movie "Exit Through the Gift Shop" is an extension of this brand. The entire movie is contrived with lots of hints to tell you that "this entire thing is contrived"...hence the name "BANKsy" and the concept that the dealers are directing the buyers like cattle to a purchasing opportunity. The movie was nothing more than a huge advertisement for the brand.

This is what the high-end art business is about. We manufacture "desire" in a variety of different ways (even having art created) and manipulate the buyers to spend as much as possible. I'd be happy to talk more about how this happens, but here are a few resources:

Here's a great book that explains everything.

Here's an article about when the auction houses got caught price fixing. So laughable because it's what we do every day. It's the way the whole system is set up. We're just a little more savvy now.

I did some research about the Coloring Book piece by Jeff Koons and found this Gale Hart quote:
> Too many artists think the city needs to hand them something,” she said. “A lot of artists have this attitude that they’re special because they make art… There’s not an artist in this town that’s in a place in their career where they deserve $8 million.

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/jeff-koons-coloring-book-sacramento-arena-672608

The value of art is such a perplexing topic to me. For example Matty Mo (LA artist) pulled this stunt at art show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLcfXo_GRSI

AFAIK in the traditional art world, art is valued based on the value of the artist, not on the art itself, but I bet there is more to this that I don't understand. If anyone knows of any literature on the subject pls send my way. I'm going to start with this book: https://www.amazon.com/Million-Stuffed-Shark-Economics-Contemporary/dp/0230620590/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=CMFP4F0AWJAPK06B7EAG

https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Days-World-Sarah-Thornton/dp/039333712X
https://www.amazon.com/Million-Stuffed-Shark-Economics-Contemporary/dp/0230620590

these two books will give you a great understanding of modern art.