Date of Award

2016

Document Type

MA Project - Open Access

Project Type

MA Project - Journal Article

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Art Business

First Advisor

Stephan Pascher

Abstract

There is always a strong demand for high quality art and collectibles. With the analysis of the case study and the interviews with experts from different auction houses, this paper will show whether the traditional auction markets have been affected by online ones.

Phillips is taking a strong hold over the middle market. In particular, Phillips’ Contemporary art department is known for focusing on younger artists, which represents lower prices than other areas. To compare in a fair way in terms of price and genre of artworks, Phillips’ Contemporary Art Day Sales in New York from 2006 to 2016 will be the major research material. Paddle8, on the other hand, is the highest ranked pure-play online auction company. It focuses on the middle market which is from $1,000 to $100,000 per piece as an online collecting destination.

After analyzing the catalogues, the year of 2011, when Paddle8 was established, was the fulcrum of the research. The number of lots and artists in Phillips’ catalogue was cut in half, and correspondingly, the average price of the works became higher than before. Furthermore, the prices of Andy Warhol and Richard Pettibone’s prints will be analyzed, since these prints are accessible through both platforms.

It is hard to generalize the market as a whole, since there are thousands of influenced factors. Nevertheless, the purpose of this paper is explore possible relationships between the simultaneous trends in these two auction houses and show possible changes in trends in the art market.

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