THE ART NEWSPAPER Number 284, November 2016 45
WILDENSTEIN: © REUTERS/CHARLES PLATIAU. GUN: COURTESY OF CHRISTIE’S
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PARISWildenstein tax trial:
the jury’s out
QThe high-proile trial in Paris of Guy Wildenstein,
the president of the New York-based Wildenstein
& Company, has come to an end—though the
jury is not expected to deliver its verdict until 12
January. The billionaire art dealer is accused of
using multiple foreign trusts to hide his family’s
assets, including more than 2,500 works of
art, and of underestimating inheritance taxes
following the death of his father, Daniel, in 2001,
and brother Alec, in 2008. The prosecutor has
called this “the longest and the most sophisticated
tax fraud” in contemporary French history and is
pressing for a four-year prison sentence (with two
years suspended) and a ine of €250m. French
tax authorities are seeking more than €550m in
back taxes. The defence is asking for an acquittal
on the basis that the law requiring trusts to be
declared to the French authorities only came into
efect in 2011. Other defendants in the case include
Alec Wildenstein Jr, the son of Guy Wildenstein’s
deceased brother Alec. E.R.PARISReady, aim, ire
QThe gun that the poet
Paul Verlaine used to
try to kill his lover, the
poet Arthur Rimbaud, is going on sale at Christie’s,
Paris, on 30 November. The piece, arguably one
of the most famous weapons in literary history,
is estimated at between €50,000 and €70,000.
In July 1873, in Brussels, Verlaine attempted to
kill Rimbaud but the bullet only grazed his wrist;
Verlaine was sentenced to two years in prison
with hard labour. E.R.NEW YORKEarly spring for Nada’s
New York art fair
QThe New Art Dealers Alliance (Nada) has
announced it is moving its spring New York fair
from the irst week of May to the irst week of
March, meaning it will run during Armory week
rather than Frieze New York week. A spokesman
for the fair calls the date change “a response to
the needs and requests [of ] our membership base
and our exhibitors,” and cites the conluence of
the Armory Show, Independent and Art Dealers
Association of America (ADAA) fairs as factors
prompting the switch, as well as the glut of art
world events scheduled to take place or open in
late spring in 2017, such as the Venice Biennale
and Documenta 14 in Kassel and Athens. The fair
is also expected to move from Basketball City, in
the city’s Lower East Side, to the more accessible
Skylight Clarkson North, in West SoHo. “I think
our new location will be very accessible for
collectors,” the spokesman says. V.S.B.These new online auction platforms
have relatively alluring fees for their
buyers—from as low as 8% up to 20%
at Paddle8/Auctionata. The big brand
auction houses keep raising their
own (currently between 12% and 25%),
though this did not seem to harm Lon-
don’s October sales. Meanwhile, Sothe-
by’s latest change (effective from 13
November) ups the rate for the priciest
lots, from 12% to 12.5%.
While technology can help cut costs
and improve efficiency, an algorithm
cannot nurture an artist’s career in the
way that a gallery does. “Building up an
artist’s career is a slow, labour intensive
process that you can’t hot-wire,” says
Marc Spiegler, the global director of
Art Basel. In all areas of the art market,
“clients still rely on us for our ‘eye’”,
says Nicholas Maclean, the co-founder
of Eykyn Maclean gallery. All the onlinesales providers are keen to emphasise
the expertise of the people behind the
computer screens.ALREADY “DISRUPTED”Arguably the art market has already been
partly disrupted, or at least changed, by
technology. Many cite price databases,
alongside the growing use of art as an
investment vehicle, as changing the way
business is conducted. Efforts to bring
price transparency to the dealer segment
of the market may prove more disruptive
still. And art fairs have clearly altered the
day-to-day life of many in the art world.
According to the US author and
scholar Clayton Christensen’s original
definition, “disruptive innovation” is
a change that begins at the lower-re-
sourced, overlooked bottom end of
a market and goes on to upset the
incumbents at the top. In the art world,
however, most online ventures, even
established ones such as Artsy, which
provides a platform both for online auc-
tions and for galleries, are predominantly
wooing existing customers that buy art
priced around the five-figure mark or
lower. This is not disruptive, merely com-
petitive, and the art market’s high bar-
riers to entry may limit the innovations
that can be implemented.
Most of its incumbent players rec-
ognise that technology is powering the
sheer volume of interest in the market,
but believe that, for now, it is more of
a tool than a game changer. Marc Glim-
cher, the president of Pace gallery, says:
“True disruption doesn’t come from
entrepreneurs. In the art world, it has
always come from the artists. Anyone
waiting for the internet to disrupt can
keep waiting.”
Melanie GerlisFacing the
screen: how
far can online
technology
really change
the basic
structure
of the art
market?“In the art world,
disruption has
always come
from artists”
Guy Wildenstein and his lawyers leave court on
the opening day of his trial in January this yearMAN ON A MISSION:
The Hermitage’s director
believes museums can
help to rebuild PalmyraMuseums
Page 20US ELECTION:
Political uncertainty
is a ecting the
trade on a
global scaleArt Market
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