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Abstract

Jens Beckert and Jörg Rössel explore the question of how the prices of artworks are established. In their opinion, the classical deduction that arises by analyzing the market is insufficient. In contrast to other goods, pricing for artworks cannot be determined by rules based on production cost or other objective factors. Contemporary works of art create particular uncertainty on the market. The decisive factor for this is a work's artistic quality, which is determined by an evaluation process carried out by specialists, gallery owners, art critics and art institutions. New studies show that a rise in prices for an artist's work after his death only occurs if the artist enjoyed a corresponding reputation during his lifetime.