Why art galleries won’t survive after coronavirus – unless they adapt to create value for artists through digital channels
How is the art world doing amid the pandemic? Photo: AP
By Daniel Langer, CEO Équitê and Professor of Luxury Strategy at Pepperdine
Originally published in South China Morning Post
The art market appears to follow its own rules. A technically excellent painting that an artist worked on for years may only sell for a few hundred US dollars, or never sell at all. Another smaller scale work, done in an instant as a reflection of a moment, can fetch several million dollars. It may be only a small exaggeration to say that 99 per cent of all artists are paid miserably, while the top 1 per cent enjoys a celebrity status and can sell their art with enormous premiums.
One might expect that the market upheaval following the pandemic would signal a plummet in demand for art, yet the opposite is happening – but not in all segments. While traditionally somewhat anti-cyclical to the stock market, the “luxury” art market is growing during the pandemic as stocks remain somewhat robust. This reflects the uncertainty of investors, who look to art as a long-term value play.