The Role of Art & Antique Dealers An Added Value
CHAPTER 3. DEALERS’ BACKGROUNDS: INDIVIDUALS IN CONTEXT
Art and antique dealers are a heterogeneous mix of individuals, with significantly different backgrounds, tastes and modus operandi. Their career paths and motivations for becoming a dealer vary, united only by a passion for art and antiques.
Despite their differences, the interviews conducted in this study revealed some important themes in relation to dealers’ backgrounds and education, their reasons and mode of entering the art and antiques business, and their longevity within it.
3.1 Backgrounds and Education
Art and antique dealers make their livings by coordinating supply and demand in the art market, an opaque trading ground where the value placed on information is at a premium. Knowledge and expertise are therefore a key basis for competitive advantage and successful art dealers require both specialist knowledge combined with business acumen.
As a profession, a key theme is that, while dealers’ backgrounds vary, they are well-educated, although not always directly in art history.
Around half of the dealers interviewed studied history of art or a similar discipline that related directly to their business, while the remainder studied in unrelated fields including law, economics, high-level sciences and engineering. Some of those dealers that studied in unconnected areas to arts worked professionally in other industries (and commonly at a high level) for several years before becoming a dealer, and most were art or antique collectors first.
While many felt art and antique dealing as a set of skills could not be taught formally, it was felt that scholarship and academia had become more important over time and were now more highly regarded within the trade as dealers became increasingly specialised. Many dealers felt that a more detail orientated, academic breed of dealers had emerged, particularly in non-Contemporary markets, versus the more old-school dealer who bought and sold from flea markets and through directly visiting old houses and other more ground-level approaches to search and sales.
Around one third of the dealers interviewed described themselves as self-taught, however, many felt that dealing required apprenticeship and learning within the trade from more experienced peers and mentors. Of those that engaged in some form of apprenticeship, around 70% were engaged under other dealers (including family members), while 30% worked in the auction sector as a means to gain knowledge and practical experience of the art trade.
Historical & Future Perspectives 19
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