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Thursday 4 December 2008

Cult of the masterpiece

Susan Moore on the art market

A bull market awash with seemingly limitless funds has tempted consignors to offer major works of art, and as a result we are riding a wave of superlatives from the auction houses. As each star turn is paraded on an extensive global tour, it is billed as best, rarest, oldest, biggest, most expensive — the now-or-never last chance. (The Giant Mao falls into all three last categories.) The auction-house strategists have identified their new-money quarry and are targeting works of art — and sales pitches — accordingly.

No doubt these fledgling collectors bidding sums of money that bear no relation to the auction histories of artists or markets are reassured. They have known only a rising market, and they have seen the huge profits that have been made speculating in art. They are reassured by the stream of record prices, and the high sales percentages. What they probably do not realise is the extent to which these highly professional, blue-chip evening sales are edited and effectively ‘curated’ to present precisely what the current buyers desire. They have probably never mused on the fate of expensive works of art which are now so unfashionable as to be all but unsaleable. In fact there is far too little thinking at all. Masterpiece culture just does not require it. All it asks is that you buy with your ears, not with your eyes or your heart.

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