When Gekko Collects Art

Stoyan Sgourev | The Smart Set | 27th June 2019

The art market’s expansion is significantly due to greater participation by finance executives. They see the finance and art markets as having “similar principles of evaluation and pricing”. Their “flexible aesthetic preferences” favour contemporary art where connoisseurship plays a lesser role. Factors like “brand power” and celebrity mean the art market “increasingly resembles … professional sports.” Reasonable people may disagree.