Shelby Rose

Date of Award

2025

Document Type

MA Project - Restricted Access (SIA Only)

Project Type

MA Project - Business Plan

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Art Business

First Advisor

Judith Prowda

Second Advisor

Agnes Berecz

Abstract

In an era of instant and constant communication, one of the key challenges is that
“disinformation travels faster than the truth can be verified, creating a breeding ground for confusion and mistrust.”1 However, unlike the viral spread of disinformation, the process of uncovering the truth is often slow and laborious, an unattractive characteristic for the fast-moving media and content-based businesses of the world today. Citizens’ mistrust of basic facts in the digital landscape, it seems, has been stolen by the spread of propaganda. The only way to solve an issue of trust in the digital marketplace is to provide consumers with fact-based
content. However simply stated, to counter an issue of this magnitude demands meticulous verification and careful investigation. There is no such industry polluted by the spread of fake, false, and even fraudulent digital information as the art world. But the art world – historically opaque – has long benefited a tiny elite of collectors, gallerists, and artists. The “culture of secrecy” – as The New York Times calls it – has proliferated for decades. Stories of forgeries, fakes, fraud, theft, money laundering, and secret sales have dominated headlines and dominated book and movie scripts. Older paintings authored by long-dead artists are notoriously present in the underworld of black market sales. Due to the dubious heritage of many of these works, they cannot be verifiable as originals without what we call accurate “provenance,” the art word’s form of a receipt that details the history and movement of a work. Normally, specialists attempt to reconstruct the chain of ownership, documenting how a work passed among collectors and galleries over the centuries.6 This can take days, months, or even years and often involves searching dusty library shelves, flipping through crusted pamphlets, and tracking down incomplete archival auction records. But without this confirmation, a valuable piece may remain worthless unless some other verification of its authenticity can be made. As David Ignatius writes in The Washington Post, “The idea is simple: An art buyer should want to know that the painting attributed to, say, Leonardo da Vinci was created by him.” Art Haus attempts to solve the issue of transparency in the art world through the proliferation of fact-checked digital content. Through the use of freely available primary and secondary sources from educational institutions, Art Haus hopes to build a digital media empire with massive content production abilities. The company will use new artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help research and generate potential stories and to properly cite them for publication on our website, app, and across our social media channels. In doing so, Art Haus hopes to give art collectors, art world professionals, financial professionals with art-focused investments and clients, educational institutions, and curious members of the public more clarity in researching, purchasing, investing, and learning about art. In doing so, Art Haus hopes to inspire education and clarity in all sectors by offering a successful media company framework. We detail our plans for the new company, below.

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