In The Art Newspaper, Anna Brady explains the art fair market and poses this question to experts, including Artory Founder and CEO, Nanne Dekking.
The 2018 Art Basel and UBS Art Market Report found that in 2017, surveyed galleries made 46% of their sales at fairs, up 5% on 2016. Art economist, Dr. Clare McAndrew, estimates that art fair sales “reached close to $15.5bn in 2017.” By her calculations, sales at fairs account for around 24% of the estimated $63.7bn worth of art sold in 2017, but we have no idea how or where that money was spent.
“Nanne Dekking, advocates the use of blockchain-based technology as a means of increasing transparency by creating a digital sales ledger for works of art. But for blockchain to work, sales at fairs — and within galleries — would have to be recorded, accurately.”
Ultimately, Brady believes that, “For all the supposed desire for transparency, no one will make the first move because it is the far more difficult path.”
We here at Artory believe that the blockchain-based technology used in the Artory Registry is a game-changing product that will increase transparency in the art market. The Artory Registry is a secure, digital registry of verified information about artworks and collectibles, and their history. By creating an immutable registry with standardized certificates, Artory builds an additional layer of trust into the art market that is already the norm when purchasing other valuable items — houses, cars, jewelry, or even computer software.
To be successful in building the trust consumers are craving — rather than using blockchain to create a new marketplace that will create a level of opaqueness we have never seen before — we need artists, collectors, authenticators, trusted auction houses, and dealers participating in fairs such as Tefaf and Art Basel, where scrupulous vetting procedures are in place, to embrace the system.
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Read the full article in The Art Newspaper here.
