Last week, the Financial Times and Julius Baer hosted a debate in Davos, where writers, economists, art show producers, and collectors discussed the significant growth of the international art market, and recognized the $70 billion a year industry as a significant economic force. Read the full article here.
Here are some high points:
Peter Aspden, arts writer for the Financial Times, remarked on the impact of globalization of the art market, suggesting that “[t]here have been enormous changes in the ecology of the art world in the last 20 years.”
Famed economist, Nouriel Roubini, “warned that as art becomes big business, it also becomes a big circus promoted by the fashion and entertainment industries” and advised that “some form of self-regulation should be introduced into the art market.”
Well-known art collector, Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, shared her belief “that art collectors who identify, sustain and promote fresh talent are essential to the art world.”
Martin Roth, director of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, opined that it is a museum’s role to protect quality and artists, and to provide “a stabling counterweight to the effervescence of the art market”.