Special FocuS
The Price of Everything
and the Value of Nothing
Since when did art become an
If the art is sometimes a bit too ordinary, the prices
tell us that these are not household consumer items.
asset class, and who wins in this
At these prices we have to think of these works as
investment craze?
investments, as much financial assets as art. And for that
reason, their shifting prices reflect influences that lie outside
words James Heartfield
the artworld. As well as the supply side – the quality and
quantity of the works being produced – there is a question
of the demand side: who is buying these goods, and why.
In 2004 in a warehouse in Argall Avenue, Leyton,
a fire started that destroyed artworks by Hirst, Tracey Emin,
Barry Flanagan and Patrick Heron. One work consumed in
“shame on you all! You’re spending millions of pounds the flames was Jake & Dinos Chapman’s Hell (1999–2000),
on these things, and the world is falling apart.” After the commissioned by Charles Saatchi for around £500,000 (we
crank was ushered out of the saleroom, the real business can always make another one, the Chapman Brothers said
began. Sotheby’s autumn sales of contemporary art were cheerfully at the time). Estimates of losses at the Momart
closely watched for signs that the market would be badly Ltd fire were put between £30 million and £50 million –
affected by the wobbly money markets. In the event, Damien and a confidential settlement was reached in January 2007.
Hirst’s prices suffered – his 1992 spot painting Adenosine A question few people asked at the time was, what
was unsold, and a ceramics cabinet did poorly, though were works of art worth upwards of £50 million doing
Hello Love (1997–8), with butterflies, did better. But while sitting unseen in a Leyton warehouse? The answer is that
Damien struggled to live up to high expectations, younger these works of art had made the transition into financial
challengers were on hand to take up the slack. investments. A cynic, said Wilde, knows the price of
Yue Minjun’s Execution (1995) sold for £2.9 million, everything and the value of nothing. Momart knew that
and Raqib Shaw’s Garden of Earthly Delights III (2003) their price was moving upwards, in a way that their intrinsic
for £2.7m, four times the asking price. Overall, Sotheby’s value, as Wilde means it, could not. The owners of the works
took £34.8m, a little less than hoped, but still three times were holding assets that were appreciating, seen or unseen.
more than previous autumn sales. Buyers included Larry In these days of celebrity-list artists and £50 million
Gagosian, who picked up a Francis Bacon, among other diamond skulls it seems odd to remember the old image we
purchases, and a number of hedge-fund managers bidding had of the artist starving and shivering in his garret – like
up the price of the emerging-economy newcomers. Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (as recreated by Ken Russell in
Should Hirst worry? Hardly. In June his Lullaby Savage Messiah, 1972), wearing smocks; or like Eric Gill.
Spring (2002) pill cabinet made him the highest-priced As a boy I spent some summers in the artists’ colony
living artist when it fetched £9.7m. And the day after in St Ives and can swear that Heron really did paint in a
the Sotheby’s auction, another butterfly mosaic, Eternity smock, shivering over a Calor gas fire in his studio there,
(2002–4), was sold by Phillips de Pury and Company for perhaps painting the abstract works (which he later thought
£4.2m, above its £3.5m estimate. (See
Bloomberg.com might really be seascapes) that burned in Leyton. The artists
and
Sothebys.com for commentaries.) Rumours abound really did seem to be as poor as church mice – which was
that some of these very high profile sales are staged, but the hard on their wives, because it is a profession that brings out
fact stands that the overall market has been healthy for six the spendthrift in you (tools and materials are expensive in
solid years. craftwork, and it would be a mistake to trip up the muse by
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