An obsolescent hegemony and the birth of competition.
By Aude de Kerros.
At the beginning of 2019, the international art market is
experiencing an evolution that will likely have a profound impact on the existing global art market system. The event underlying this structural change is an unexpected and unprecedented strategic business alliance between three companies based on the creation and operation of databanks. Two are specialized in the field of art - both with an online sales capacity - and a third (Cision) selects information from the international press and feeds that information to the press and media directly concerned.
The alliance comes at the end of a decade that has seen a technological revolution in communication and a profound change in geopolitical power relations. Moreover, a clivage has emerged between a very high-end mainstream art market with global visibility, the 'contemporary-international' art market, and a whole series of 'local' markets that present an art considered 'non-innovative' that falls outside the sophisticated and intellectualised 'art world'. It is in this context that a new partnership has been negotiated between Artprice, Artron and Cision.
- The creation of this game-changing triumvirate was triggered by the listed French art info company Artprice, founded and steered by a larger-than-life and non-conformist personality dedicated to the principle of maintaining his liberty and independence. Thierry Ehrmann is the creator of the most comprehensive databank on the global art market, an exhaustive databank that covers both 'global financial art' and 'local non-sophisticated' arts. The inclusion of the latter field is a mission that the French state has distinctly eschewed (at its own national level), since its archiving work only covers 'state-recognised' conceptual/contemporary artists.
- Artron is a Chinese institutionnal company founded in 1993 that aims to promote art and creation in China, providing all of the requisite tools to foster a thriving art sector in a country where the auction market was almost non-existent under the communist regime. It has also built up a comprehensive database that includes all currents of Chinese art.
- Cision is a press observer and distributor, headquartered in Chicago, providing tailored relationships with global media outlets to the world's influencers and communication strategists.
CARTELS AND MONOPOLIES BEWARE!
Thierry Ehrmann is a Robin Hood character with a strong allergy to monopolies and intermediaries which he hounds relentlessly. Over the years he has turned this allergy into a positive mission to release the art world from its economic and intellectual predators. By analysing the data collected in the Artprice databanks he realised that the high-end global art market, referenced in New York, has a hegemonic visibility around the entire globe; a supply market, without real roots and without any real competition. He also realised that the 'real' market, a demand driven market, is infinitely larger, but
under-developed due to a lack of visibility.
By contrast, the hegemonic market thrives through a highly interconnected
international network, sharing common interests, holding fairs, auctions, exhibitions in museums and international galleries. Its business model combines two levels: a market that closely resembles a pure financial market, secured by collectors operating within a closed circuit, and a mass market occupied by derivative arty objects produced industrially in limited series in all prices and formats (from gallery replicas to keyrings and t-shirts). This latter market effectively translates the original works - which often fetch massive
sums at auctions - into 'promotional icons'.
Together (i.e. the high-end plus its low-end sister), this market owes its legitimacy to its profitability and its various different utilities: simultaneously a 'social' and a business platform, generating urban events, tourist attractions, fuelling the museum industry etc. The Global Financial Art system, which provides incomes for a lot of people, also benefits from donations (tax-free of course) from patrons, companies, institutions, as well as subsidies from certain states.
For Thierry Ehrmann, this market is built around a cluster of arcane agreements, in its own image
His databanks of objective information give him prime access to the market's key information and the analytical firepower behind an inspired strategy. He was the first to note that China had become the world's leading art market
as
early as 2009, ahead of America. This fact has attracted little
