Experts and Auctioneers in Paris Art Auctions 1852-1862

From 1852 the Hôtel Drouot was the space where the French auctioneers (Commissaires-Priseurs) - who held a stately sanctioned monopoly - organized their auctions. By processing data from the art auction catalogue repertory by Frits Lugt and the extended version Art Sales Catalogues Online, it is possible to map the networks of art marketing at the early Hôtel Drouot

Virtualität und Ökonomie Ästhetische Potentiale der vernetzten Hypergraphik

Drei digitale Kunstprojekte aus den Jahren 2015 und 2016 werden in diesem Text vorgestellt und verglichen, Game Over Facebook, WrongGrid und Curating Money. Ihnen ist gemeinsam, dass sie in Konfrontation zu ihrem jeweiligen technischen und ästhetischem Kontext stehen, beispielsweise zu den digitalen Plattformen, auf denen sie gespeichert sind, aber auch zu den künstlerischen Tendenzen, denen sie formal zugehörig sind. Die Projekte loten die künstlerischen, technischen und ökonomischen Grenzen ihres Bezugssystems aus. Ein neu konstruierter Bruch zwischen ökonomischer und künstlerischer Welt lässt sich hier konstatieren, denn die virtuelle Welt wird zu einer besonders zugespitzten Instanz der Kunstwelt. Virtualität wird dabei zum Möglichkeitsraum, in dem wiederum ökonomische Zusammenhänge künstlerisch thematisiert werden können. Bezogen auf Virtualität verhandelt dieser Text nicht nur die Künstlichkeit des gestalteten Raums, sondern auch die spezifische Zeitstruktur

Berlin – Paris: Transnational Aspects of French Art Auctions in the Middle of the Nineteenth Century

In the valuation of works of art, the setting of a price is the last step, the result of a discursive attribution of quality; in this regard, aesthetic and commercial evaluations merge. The structure of this mediation is characterised by the concept of the “knowledge market;” knowledge that is ordered and able to spread is essential in order to stabilise the accumulation of value. The boundaries of this circulation of knowledge are fuzzy. It begins in the market and in museums, but also in scholarship. An extended definition of circulation must therefore consider not only objects, actors and money, but also knowledge itself and its media. Such a model of transnational exchange can accommodate both aesthetic and economic aspects. In this way it does not deal with the art market as a clearly separate sphere beyond the art world, but instead relates economic aspects to supposedly purely artistic ones

Museum Photo Archives and the History of the Art Market: A Digital Approach

Digital images with metadata contain unique potential for research into the history of the art market. The embedding of digital images in a database allows for the possibility of an association with their historical context due to the presence of metadata, which includes economic data, such as the provenance chain, as well as information about collecting practices. The database becomes a historical reconstruction of context accompanying the reproductions of the works. In this paper, a case study of a museum photo archive of forgeries illustrates the ways in which digital methods can be helpful in analyzing these contexts. The archive was run by the secret “Verband von Museums-Beamten zur Abwehr von Fälschungen und unlauterem Geschäftsgebahren” (Association of Museum Officials for Defense against Fakes and Improper Business Practices). This archive allows the engagement of early 20th century museums in the art market to be traced within specific genres. The goal of the case study and methodology presented here is to learn more about the economic practices of museums. Specifically, this paper reconsiders a study by Timothy Wilson on fake maiolica, with a new focus on the involvement of museums in the art market

The Hôtel Drouot as the stock exchange for art. Financialization of art auctions in the nineteenth century

Throughout historic developments, the publicly ascertained and published price of an artwork repeatedly served as a reference point for art theoretical discussion. Particular importance was attached to the auction sale price, since this financial evaluation of art was of such a public nature. While there is a long history of these ideas about the pricing of art, there are notable times of transition, one of which can be identified in France in the middle of the nineteenth century. The context at the time was the foundation of the auction house Hôtel Drouot as the new central location for handling art in Paris. Through historic articles and books about Hôtel Drouot it becomes apparent that a discussion was underway about the financialization of art, which led to a description of the auction house as the stock exchange for art. At the same time, the rising importance of the auction market for living artists was a key factor in a changed understanding of the relationship between art and money

Markt und Manipulation in der historischen Auktionshausliteratur

Die französische Literatur des 19. Jahrhunderts über das Pariser Auktionshaus kreist um das Thema des Betrugs. In Büchern der Historiker und Kunstkritiker Jules Champfleury, Victor-Charles Préseau und Henri Rochefort werden Fälschungen und betrügerische Expertise in Zusammenhang gebracht und Experten als Störung für die Abläufe des Kunstmarkts problematisiert. Verschiedene Formen von Wissen, wie Auktionsexpertise und wissenschaftliche Lexika, stehen dabei in Konkurrenz zueinander. Die Texte stellen der Manipulation der Experten als Gegenpol die entstehende Kunstwissenschaft gegenüber. -- Dans la littérature du 19e siècle sur l'hôtel des ventes de Paris, la fraude est un thème primordial. Des livres d’historiens et de critiques d'art comme Jules Champfleury, Victor-Charles Préseau et Henri Rochefort mettent en lien le trucage et l'expertise frauduleuse. En effet, les experts sont désignés comme responsables des perturbations du marché de l'art. Diverses formes de savoir, comme l'expertise dans les ventes et les dictionnaires scientifiques, sont ainsi en concurrence. Les auteurs voient en la nouvelle histoire de l’art un contre-pouvoir pouvant contrecarrer les manipulations des experts

From Auction Catalog to Museum Archive. The Role of Photographs in the Fight against Forgeries in the Early Twentieth Century

The status of photo archives in art history and museum history has – for many years now – captured the attention of interdisciplinary researchers resulting, for example, in the re-evaluation of photographs as material objects and working tools. The scope of this paper is to connect this approach to the question of the use of photographs in the art market, in particular the auction market

Introduction

Introduction Vol. 1, No. 2

Workshop: Knowledge graphs as a means to critically describe museum collections (Aarhus University, 9 Oct 2023)

On Monday 9 October, I gave a workshop for the students of Prof. Magda Tyzlik-Carver in the Critical Data Studies programme. The workshop was conceptualized as a collaboration between critical collection studies and critical data studies. The idea was to look at social issues in art museums and think about the role of data. We read short descriptions of social issues in 19th-century paintings and then tried to map them as a graph. I shared work I had done with students of art history and..