Why Are Art Resale Prices Plummeting?
b'The art press is filled with headlines about trophy works trading for huge sums: $195 million for an Andy Warhol, $110 million for a Jean-Michel Basquiat, $91 million for a Jeff Koons. In the popular imagination, pricy art just keeps climbing in value\\u2014up, up, and up. The truth is more complicated, as those in the industry know. Tastes change, and demand shifts. The reputations of artists rise and fall, as do their prices. Reselling art for profit is often quite difficult\\u2014it\\u2019s the exception rather than the norm. This is \\u201cthe art market\\u2019s dirty secret,\\u201d Artnet senior reporter Katya Kazakina wrote last month in her weekly Art Detective column.\\nIn her recent columns, Katya has been reporting on that very thorny topic, which has grown even thornier amid what appears to be a severe market correction. As one collector told her: \\u201cThere\\u2019s a bit of a carnage in the market at the moment. Many things are not selling at all or selling for a fraction of what they used to.\\u201d For instance, a painting by Dan Colen that was purchased fresh from a gallery a decade ago for probably around $450,000 went for only about $15,000 at auction. And Colen is not the only once-hot figure floundering. As Katya wrote: \\u201cRight now, you can often find a painting, a drawing, or a sculpture at auction for a fraction of what it would cost at a gallery. Still, art dealers keep asking\\u2014and buyers keep paying\\u2014steep prices for new works.\\u201d In the parlance of the art world, primary prices are outstripping secondary ones.\\nWhy is this happening? And why do seemingly sophisticated collectors continue to pay immense sums for art from galleries, knowing full well that they may never recoup their investment? This week, Katya joins Artnet Pro editor Andrew Russeth on the podcast to make sense of these questions\\u2014and to cover a whole\\xa0 lot more.'