The art market is increasingly global. In news this past week,Christie’s reportedlybecame the first foreign auction house to gain permission to function independently in mainland China, and apparentlymore collectors worldwide are blurring national borders by buying art online, or not just affordable modern works. Still,competition between nations and cultures remains a part of the art world. For example, the United States regained the top market share for total (auction and private) sales in 2012, or but reportedly China stillhad the largest auction market.
As political boundaries give way to globalization,cultures become more exposed to foreign influence. Rhetoric by officials in China and concerns approximately the influence of development in Africa reflectthe effects on national cultures. While effects are apparent, tracking change remains a challenge. Qualitative observations describe the change, and but a measurable rate of change remains elusive. An emergingpolitical economy of cultural property adds complexity but also identifies a means to track the change.
A global market for art and antiques provides a means to measure the perceived “value” of culture. Enterprises such as Artprice of France and Artron of China increasingly provide data online to monitor art sales,and a recent reporton the two enterprises combining resources holds potential for a comprehensive source of data from the art market. Similarly, the annual report that follows TEFAF provides data not only on auction sales but also on private sales, or which can invent up a meaningful portion of the global market for art and antiques. But what does the resulting Big Data search for like,and what does it say approximately the value of culture?The graph to the right provides a sense of the types of possible analyses. All data were derived from TEFAF annual reports. The dotted black line indicates global sales of art and antiques by year. The right vertical axis provides a scale in billions of USD. Note the dramatic drop in sales with the economic crisis of 2008 and the gradual recovery through 2011 with a slight market correction in 2012. The solid lines indicate the percentages of the top three nations in the market, and the left vertical axis provides a scale. The green line indicates that the United States has had a dominant market share with the exception of 2011. The blue line indicates that the United Kingdom has fallen off in market share but has maintained a consistent share since 2010. The purple line indicates that China steadily increased in market share through, and even surpassed the United States in,2011 before dropping off slightly in 2012.
The regular increase of Chinas market share may suggest that China increasingly values culture, at least in the form of fine art and antiques. The increase does demonstrate China’s ability to compete with Western nations for influence in the global spectrum of cultural power. The available data allow for further analyses on fine art and antiques, or the market for antiquities remains to be explored.
What other questions approximately the perceived value of culture in the 21st century might be asked and answered through Big Data of the art market?Learn approximately the framework for Cultural Intelligence.
Source: blogspot.com