Become an Art Market Insider - How the Art Industry Really Works - Magnus Resch #TOA18

[Music] got a confession to make something that you won't hear from anyone in the art world the truth is the art market is in a terrible shape galleries are dying artists cannot live from their practice the market is highly dominated by a few players they define what you see in the museum's I want to change this so my background is I started a gallery when I was 20 and I wrote my PhD about the art market and now I'm teaching at Columbia in New York where I live teaches courses on art management I also run a company in the art world how I want to change it is by bringing transparency to the art world transparency is the key to make the art market better open and more honest and I will explain you why this is necessary the art market is in decline look at this between 2017 and 2007 the total revenue so what every player in the advil made went down by three percent so think about it in 10 years time you will think oh the art market is booming but actually it went down there's another thing that I found really interesting about this sixty billion is a number with a lot of zeros now that is what every player in the art world combined is making all the galleries auction houses and so on now that is also the revenue that a company like Dell is making every year so this gives you an idea of how small the art market really is here's another idea how small the market is that's the revenue of galleries 55% of all galleries make less than 200 thousand revenue if you think of it 50% of this revenue goes directly to the artist so galleries operate on a very very small revenue income with 100k they have to pay for rent they have to pay for staff they have to pay their own salaries they have to pay for the exhibitions and so on that's why it doesn't work 30% of all galleries are lost making and only a few actually make money transparency is important for a second reason conversion you guys are all in tech so you know what conversion means to us conversion is everything and in the art world it's terrible there has never been a time in the history of the art market when so many people could visit and see art visit numbers at the top museums around the world they're climbing every year I was at our Basel last week there were lions in front of the fair people want to go in and see art I go on dates I always bring them to gallery openings because it's cool but if you look around yourself next time you visit one of these events nobody buys odd conversion is terrible so what do you do when you run an internet company you work on the conversion you improve your UX and so on the ad world hasn't changed anything look at this graphic again between 2007 and 2017 the number of artworks that were sold went down by 20% 20% less hard works were sold in 2017 than in Tuesday 2007 not good news and in the same time the number of millionaires has more than doubled so more people visit art fairs and events more rich people exist and less people buy now who buys guys like this male white barely old and rich but wait I always hear when I want to talk to my students Magnus I was reading didn't use it said hey there's another record price The Da Vinci sold for 400 something million and I hear all these news about the art market is booming well totally true we all know them right was a good year for art sales da Vinci 450 million and actually when you look at the record prices over time you see that prices increased dramatically over the past years so just look at my birth year 1984 7 million pounds was the highest price ever paid for an artwork was all over the news today the highest price is 340 pounds so only in the past 10 years prices went up dramatically this leads to falling conclusion there are two odd worlds there's one small little one that defines everything that you see today it's run by a few individuals and then there is the rest that is struggling that is dying galleries have to close down artists cannot continue their practice I give you a few more data points on this to underline it you all know the Guggenheim between 2007 and 2013 90% 9 0 90 percent of all solo exhibitions at the Guggenheim whereby artists from five galleries these galleries define what you see in the in the whole of us in the same time period one third of all solo exhibitions whereby the same artist from the same five galleries and when you look at what sells you find a similar pattern 25 artists make up 50% of the total revenue at contemporary auction these days and surprise surprise they are male most of them are white and they're American we have to change this because art shouldn't be run by a few individuals a few collectors a few artists and a few galleries art is for everyone I want my kids to see not the same stuff in museums over and over again I want to give them a diverse view of the art market what we need is we need more buyers and how we find them is through transparency transparency is the key because it brings in new buyers think about it how difficult it is today to buy an artwork I call it the beauty contest so when I go in a gallery I feel uncomfortable it's this white cube and there's a board gallerina sitting there looking at me I'm thank God I'm white I'm male but I'm not old so most likely I'm not rich she won't talk to me if I would like to inquire the price I mean I have to ask for the price if I like to buy something that's already crazy talking about conversion and then she calls up the director the director comes down just to tell me that it's all because they don't want to sell to me they make it incredibly difficult for our generation to buy art we want all information right now immediately for free but the art world is not giving this to us look at this artwork it's from the 17th century and it shows you what galleries looked like back then this is how gallery should look like today it's a very vivid scene people talk it's full I've never seen a gallery that four to be honest these days and they're not only sell art they sell all sorts of things antiquities jewelry music instruments and so on there's even a dog lying there on the ground compare it to what galleries are offering us these days two sterile environment compared to this what we need is transparency that's why I created an app hi I'm Agnes fan of the app Magnus have you ever been to a gallery opening I bet you know what it feels like look at this guy he wants to impress this girl but he has no idea who the office is now there is hope open the app take a photo of the artwork and the app tells you everything you need to know this is not a Picasso oh look at this gentleman just because he looks rich doesn't mean he has to overpay right now you can see all prices from galleries and from auctions at your fingertips and we also tell you where to go next with our map you can find any gallery around you and the best thing you can download the app for free so you can spend your money on other things collect me right now [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you all right any questions actually very a couple of questions coming up so since we just saw the video I do have one question is how did you get the donkey to Berlin Mitte or did you so I actually wanted to get an elephant but they that wasn't allowed so then we were looking for horses they were too expensive so we we ended up with a donkey you can find it if you googled donkey Berlin rent I think it's 75 dollars very nice another one is what advice would you give to artists starting out of different mediums to artists so I wrote a book it's called management of art galleries and on the back the first sentence is don't start a gallery so if I would if I write a book on how to manage an artist career I would probably start with the same sentence now this doesn't help you right so the goal is and that's a key problem this is not what you learn at university the goal is you need to be in a network I explained it to you there are two worlds either you're part of the losers or you're part of the small circle of winners so all you have to do is try to get into that circle another one okay also another one is going kind of a little bit with your talk is could it also be that the art world is too skidding saturated and quality is lower than before and that buyers are not attracted because of this No because quality nobody nobody can define what good art is so quality is not going down there's never been a time in the history of the art market when there were so many artists like today so among these artists I have a lot of artist friends I like their art I think they are the best artists in the world so the answer to that question is if you're looking for good artists come and find me I know the best artists in the world I'm sure if I ask couple of these people over here they can tell they can give you the same answer there are a lot of great art out there what it needs is not more great art what it means is people like you who go out and buy which actually filters in our next question since you said not to start an art gallery what if you're an emerging art dealer actually how do you turn from art lovers and actually buying art that's the hardest problem and the key is to this is transparency the number one reason there numerous studies out there the number one reason why conversion is so low in the art world is the lack of transparency they make it hard for us to buy art and I don't know why so if we like to convert viewers into buyers we need to start with giving them the prices and then we need to we need to make it easier to buy add why does it need to be so exclusive remember the photo the the painting I showed you it's from the 17th century that was very common to buy art my brother he's an investment banker so he first Odin he first with his first money he he bought a house then a wife then a car then a watch and maybe in a different ranking but he's not buying any art why because it's it's just not transparent enough is there any other tips on for a dealer to have things more transparent as it's not just about prices well just make it easy look at the look at the every dealer should have this this artwork in his room above his bed and I wonder why so few dealers are here and reaching out to you people please go ahead and buy some art thank you very much [Applause] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Tech Open Air

Views: 75,534

Rating: 4.4915257 out of 5

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Id: E2JfJBmGa7s

Length: 17min 3sec (1023 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 10 2018

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[u/LordGrym]

chack :0