Dark Side of the Boom: The Excesses Of The Art Market In The 21st Century
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- Create Date：2021-07-06 06:53:54
- Update Date：2025-09-06
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- Author：Georgina Adam
- ISBN：1848222203
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Summary
This book scrutinizes the excesses and extravagances that the 21st-century explosion of the contemporary art market brought in its wake。 The buying of art as an investment， temptations to forgery and fraud， tax evasion， money laundering and pressure to produce more and more art all form part of this story， as do the upheavals in auction houses and the impact of the enhanced use of financial instruments on art transactions。 Drawing on a series of tenaciously wrought interviews with artists， collectors， lawyers， bankers and convicted artist forgers， the author charts the voracious commodification of artists and art objects， and art's position in the clandestine puzzle of the highest echelons of global capital。 Adam's revelations appear even more timely in the wake of the Panama Papers revelations， for example incorporating examples of the way tax havens have been used to stash art transactions – and ownership – away from public scrutiny。 With the same captivating style of her bestselling Big Bucks: The Explosion of the Art Market in the 21st Century， Georgina Adam casts her judicious glance over a section of the art market whose controversies and intrigues will be of eye-opening interest to both art-world players and observers。
Reviews
Lance Charnes
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Dark Side of the Boom is a sequel to the author's 2014 work on the subject， aptly named Big Bucks: The Explosion of the Art Market in the 21st Century。 How much can change in only four years， you ask？ You'd be surprised and possibly appalled。Author Georgina Adam has spent the past 30+ years digging her way through the crazy apex of the art market， writing for The Art Newspaper， the Financial Times and BBC Worldwide。 Because all the news worth printing about the various pathologies of the Dark Side of the Boom is a sequel to the author's 2014 work on the subject， aptly named Big Bucks: The Explosion of the Art Market in the 21st Century。 How much can change in only four years， you ask？ You'd be surprised and possibly appalled。Author Georgina Adam has spent the past 30+ years digging her way through the crazy apex of the art market， writing for The Art Newspaper， the Financial Times and BBC Worldwide。 Because all the news worth printing about the various pathologies of the art markets happens at the seven-figure-and-up end， that's where she usually toils， which explains why her cast of characters consists largely of the 0。1% and the remoras who service them。 What this also means is that unless you， too， are in the 0。1% and are duffing around in this playground （and if so， WTH are you doing here？）， none of what you read in this book will be of any practical use to you at all。 You will get some choice bits to throw around at your next cocktail party， though。Previously in Big Bucks:-- Art collectors are no longer exclusively aristocratic older white folk with ancestral money， buying for the love of the work。 Increasingly， they're younger Masters of the Universe making breathtakingly obscene money doing high-risk financial deals。 They want to show they've arrived by spending metric tons of currency on statement art， whether or not they like it or understand it。-- Because nearly all the loose Old Masters and really good Impressionists are on museum walls or were swept up by the the old-line collectors， these new collectors are piling into contemporary （post-WWII） art。 More and more， this means works by artists who are still alive and still producing。-- Since the new collectors may not know （or care） anything about art and may or may not have any taste， they can rent knowledge and taste from a fairly small circle of high-end art advisors and other specialists。 These hired guns know the same fairly small number of high-end dealers， dote on the same very small group of "hot" artists， and as a result， construct collections that look eerily alike。Now that you're caught up。。。Adam wraps new trends in the markets into eight thematic chapters that take us into 2017。 In her previous book， the author started each chapter with a colorful anecdote to set the scene， then got into reportage。 Alas， she's lost the stories this time， diving right into the journalism from the start。 And it is journalism; none of these chapters would be out-of-place in The Atlantic or the Sunday NYT Arts section。 Adam's prose is clear and she's usually good about defining the arcana。 You don't need to know much about art to understand what she's writing about， though it would help to know a fair amount about finance。 This is actually financial reporting; the commodities involved are pictures you need an MFA to understand （if then）。Some of the issues that caught the author's fancy:-- Collectors who are in it for the money want to buy assets that will appreciate in value， preferably quickly。 This leads young artists favored by the cognoscenti to create to the market instead of developing their craft。 Their early style becomes their only style， mass-produced and relentlessly marketed to a tiny audience until the consumers get bored and move on。 A artist who piles up $100K in debt for his/her MFA may end up with a career that lasts as long as the typical internet meme。-- Various financial geniuses have attempted to financialize art by creating a string of art investment funds， fractional ownership schemes， and stock markets for art。 These have been spectacularly successful at pouring investors' money down the nearest storm drain。-- Anonymous shell companies own a lot of art。 It's a great way to obscure beneficial ownership， avoid taxes and currency controls， and mask antisocial activities like flipping art and doctoring provenance。 Yes， Mossack Fonseca gets name-checked here， though with distressingly little detail。-- Where do anonymous shell companies store their art？ In free ports， natch -- glorified secure warehouses with extremely advantageous tax and duty treatments for all the goods shuttling from one Lear to another。 Many billions of dollars' worth of art is stashed in these places。 What with private sales and asset swaps between collectors， some amount of that art never leaves the climate-controlled storage cubes。This is a short book -- just about two hundred pages including the introduction and postscript （both of which you should read）。 With brevity you sacrifice depth。 Luckily， there are extensive endnotes and a decent bibliography （not always a given in these books） should you want to probe deeper。 Still， you may want to have an open web browser at your elbow; there are no pictures， and you'll want to look up the blizzard of artist names the author throws at you so you get an idea of what a nine-figure work of art looks like。The Dark Side of the Boom builds on the finance porn of Big Bucks to show what happens in a lightly regulated market awash with hot money and enormous egos。 It's an effective if skin-deep survey of what goes on behind those spectacular headlines about multi-zillion-dollar art auctions。 Expect to feel aggrieved about the misapplication of resources and talent these stories describe; perhaps you'll need to sharpen your pitchfork and stock up on torches。 By the end， though， you'll at least know what your brokerage fees are buying。 。。。more
Hayes
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Thanks to this extremely well written piece， I better understand the complexities of the art market。 More importantly， I now know how to create a syndicate of speculators who can flip the world of emerging contemporary artists through an artificial price bubble， which we all profit off immensely。 Even learnt how to dodge the tax using trusts and holding companies。 Just Brilliant。
Athan Tolis
，
This was less than a book and more like somebody stitched together eight newspaper articles。 The style is as follows: the author goes to an event， interviews people， gives you the story’s background via that of the interviewee’s and fills in a few gaps。 The other thing that makes you feel you’re reading the paper is that the author seems to be in awe of the phenomena she decries and the larger-than-life personalities she interviews， to the point of often losing the ability to criticize them。Or p This was less than a book and more like somebody stitched together eight newspaper articles。 The style is as follows: the author goes to an event， interviews people， gives you the story’s background via that of the interviewee’s and fills in a few gaps。 The other thing that makes you feel you’re reading the paper is that the author seems to be in awe of the phenomena she decries and the larger-than-life personalities she interviews， to the point of often losing the ability to criticize them。Or perhaps it’s quite simply that she lives in this world。 She is of it， she can’t really badmouth it too much。With all that said， there’s good info here about the goings on in the art world。 Stuff I took away includes:•tChina has created immense demand for art by dint of offering tax incentives to developers who include a museum in their sundry developments。•tThe art world has cottoned on to this and can crank out this art in bulk。 The supply to meet this new demand is pretty much “on tap。”•tAbout half the art auctioned is Modern。•tThere’s been a crash in krazy expensive art （that was news to me）•tThe top end of the market is driven by the NUMBER of super-rich people， not their actual wealth。•t“If you can borrow money against it， then it’s an asset” so art is an asset class。•tThe guy who owns Skorpios made his money in fertilizer， got royally rogered by an art dealer he trusted and came out on top regardless， by selling a Da Vinci to the Saudi prince who’s in the news。The chapters are all structured around a topic （example: “Authentication”） and they all introduce you to a bunch of characters you would not invite around to your house （and who would not come if you did。） The author is kind of in awe of how rich they all are or the fact that they descend from an artist whose oeuvre / name they live off of。 You’re told how they got into some type of dispute and if the courts have resolved it yet。 Chapter after chapter。 Oh， and the price history of some painting is invariably traced， which is guaranteed to make the book age poorly。 Or then again， perhaps not！One thing the book did convince me of is the following: if it’s money you’re looking to make from art， you’d better have the firepower to play all the angles。 That includes the galleries， the museums， the authenticators and the auction houses。 Oh， and the artists of course。 If that’s something you cannot do， be aware that the guy you’re dealing with probably can！It was that type of book。 A light read for the train， but nothing to write home about。 3。5 stars from me！ 。。。more
jay ahuja
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