How do we tackle the ‘Art Market Bubble’?

Today’s post comes from guest blogger Katey Brown, Director of Museum Studies and Assistant Professor of Art History at Walsh University, and a member of the Ohio Museums Association’s Board of Trustees

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Some of you may have read in this past week’s Sunday Magazine of the New York Times a series of letters in the “Invitation to Dialogue” Opinion section (click here for the link) with an ensuing and engrossing discussion about the high prices of contemporary art and thus the suggestion of an “Art Market Bubble.”

Aside from how high prices of art affect private collectors and auction houses, I am mostly concerned about how high prices affect art museums’ abilities to add such works to their collections. Especially for small or mid-sized museums, prices that range in the millions of dollars make some works of art simply unobtainable.

How is your museum tackling the Art Market Bubble?

Larger museums may be fortunate to have donors who will acquire, or provide matching funds to acquire, multi-million dollar masterpieces of art. Other donors may collect such works privately, sometimes with curatorial input or an art historian’s advice, and then leave them to an art museum as a bequest.

I invite your comments or thoughts about how the rising prices of art, and contemporary art in particular, have affected your museum’s ability to collect 20th century art.

Some museums may steer more towards prints, drawings, photography or other works on paper that may be more affordable than a major painting, sculpture or installation and yet allow representation of major “isms” or artists within the scope of a collection. Others may formulate a Collector’s Circle or other group of museum members whose interest is in advancing the acquisitions fund for the museum. Other museums may need to tweak, update, or change their collection policy to accommodate fluctuating art prices and thus make their collections policies feasible. Some curators may patiently wait–decades even–to monitor if or when prices of desired works may come down.

Notice that I am steering clear of some of the issues brought up in the Dialogue letters, such as whether or not works by various specific artists are “worth” the high investment. Such connotative and interpretive issues are best left to connoisseurship and time.

Relevant to members of OMA, I’m interested in to what extent high art market prices have affected your museums’ abilities to collect. Food for thought!

Katey Brown
Director of Museum Studies and Assistant Professor of Art History, Walsh University
OMA Board Member