Talking Prices by Olav Velthuis: Deconstructing the theatricality of pricing strategies on the art market (original) (raw)

PRICING OF ARTWORKS: AUCTION VERSUS EXHIBITION

MAIDJAD, Maiduguri Journal of Arts and Design, ISSN: 15965414, 2017

When an artist is trying to sell his work through an exhibition or an auction, the selling price may end up being different from his intended price. In 2013, one of the four versions of Edvard Munch’s The Scream, a pastel on board painting, according to Vogel (2012), fetched 119.9millionatSotheby’sauctioninNewYork.In2014,BenEnwonwu′sPrincesofMali,soldfor119.9 million at Sotheby’s auction in New York. In 2014, Ben Enwonwu's Princes of Mali, sold for 119.9millionatSotheby’sauctioninNewYork.In2014,BenEnwonwu′sPrincesofMali,soldfor138,870 at Bonhams in Lagos, and El Anatsui’s Mask, sold for $78,375 at Arthouse (Castellote & Fagbule, 2015). El Anatsui’s works sell for millions of naira, yet works of another artist struggles to sell for thousands of naira. Auction and Exhibition play major roles in the pricing of works. Why does one work sell for ₦70,000, another for ₦500 million, and yet another for ₦17 billion? In establishing selling price for a work, is exhibition more beneficial to the artist than auction? Does the price of a work go higher in auction than exhibition? These inquiries would build and buttress the concentration of this paper. This paper uses a review of reports on marketing structures and operations of art auction and exhibition to discuss their impact on pricing of artworks. It also examines the certain benefits accruing to artists on either channel of distribution and sale of their artworks.