Money Sullies Art: Cashed-up and Collecting

THE RELATIONSHIP between the commercial art market and the collector appears to be a straightforward matter of supply and demand. But it is equally the case that this desire is an effect of the commercial art market rather than its cause. The function of any commercial system is to seduce potential consumers into the false belief that it is satisfying a pre-existing need for goods and services that are necessary for our very existence, but which actually appeal to our shameless desire for more money, more sex, more love, more status and so on.

The historical development of the modern art market is a master class in this model of advertising, where desire for its product is – at least in part – generated in and through the way it promotes this product to different types of consumers. For much of the 20th century, the European art market sought to internationalise itself, and so turned its attention to America’s wealthy elite who were looking for ways to reinforce their social status. The commercial art world appealed to these people by creating an aura of aristocracy around itself; indeed, the most successful art dealer of the period, Joseph Duveen, was himself an ennobled Englishman.

Towards the end of the 20th century, an entirely new art consumer emerged who was unencumbered by a sense of history and tradition. A turning point in this development was the acquisition of auction house Christie’s in 1998 by international business- man Francoise Pinault. Pinault – the owner of a global high-end retail conglomerate that features Gucci and Yves St Laurent among its companies – saw the opportunity to aggressively market art as another luxury brand and promoted it to high- net-worth individuals wanting the trappings of an exclusive, jet-setting lifestyle.

The market has found a new breed of collector in the 21st century: the cashed-up millennial. According to the 2019 Art Basel & UBS Art Market Report prepared by Arts Economics founder Clare McAndrew, the 22- to 37-year-old collecting cohort are now the group most likely to spend $1 million plus on an artwork. Whereas previously the demography for high-level spending on art was the baby boomers crowd, latest research indicates that the new profile of the contemporary art collector is this younger generational cohort. Indeed, millennials are the fastest growing consumer segment in art collecting globally. This is especially evident in places like Singapore and Hong Kong.