The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art

Don Thompson

St. Martin's Publishing Group, Feb 21, 2012 - Art - 272 pages

Why would a smart New York investment banker pay $12 million for the decaying, stuffed carcass of a shark? By what alchemy does Jackson Pollock's drip painting No. 5, 1948 sell for $140 million?

Intriguing and entertaining, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark is a Freakonomics approach to the economics and psychology of the contemporary art world. Why were record prices achieved at auction for works by 131 contemporary artists in 2006 alone, with astonishing new heights reached in 2007? Don Thompson explores the money, lust, and self-aggrandizement of the art world in an attempt to determine what makes a particular work valuable while others are ignored.

This book is the first to look at the economics and the marketing strategies that enable the modern art market to generate such astronomical prices. Drawing on interviews with past and present executives of auction houses and art dealerships, artists, and the buyers who move the market, Thompson launches the reader on a journey of discovery through the peculiar world of modern art. Surprising, passionate, gossipy, revelatory, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark reveals a great deal that even experienced auction purchasers do not know.

Contents

• The 12 Million Stuffed Shark: 1
• Branding and Insecurity: 9
• Branded Auctions: 19
• Branded Dealers: 27
• The Art of the Dealer: 41
• Art and Artists: 53
• Damien Hirst and the Shark: 61
• Warhol Koons and Emin: 73
• Branded Collector: 85
• Christies and Sothebys: 95
• Choosing an Auction Hammer: 103
• Auction Psychology: 117
• The Secret World of Auctions: 131
• Francis Bacons Perfect Portrait: 145
• Auction Houses vs Dealers: 157
• The Dealers Final Frontier: 169
• Art and Money: 177
• Pricing Contemporary Art: 189
• Fakes: 201
• Art Critics: 209
• Museums: 215
• End Game: 227
• Contemporary Art as an Investment: 239
• Postscript: 252
• References: 255
• Art Websites: 259
• Photo Credits: 261
• Index: 263

About the author

Don Thompson teaches marketing and economics in the MBA program at the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto. He has taught at the London School of Economics and at Harvard Business School. He lives in London and Toronto.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art
• Author: Don Thompson
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2012
• ISBN: 0230341934, 9780230341937
• Length: 272 pages
• Subjects: Art / Business Aspects; Art / Individual Artists / General; Art / Individual Artists / Monographs; Biography & Autobiography / Artists, Architects, Photographers; Business & Economics / Consumer Behavior