The Role of Art & Antique Dealers An Added Value CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
This report on the role of art dealers is being written at a time of great flux in the infrastructure and geography of the art market. For the first time in hundreds of years there are various forces at work reshaping the competitive environment of the art and antiques trade. It is in the midst of these changes that CINOA has commissioned this study to investigate the changing roles and business models of art and antique dealers. The report looks at dealers and their businesses from historical, current and future perspectives, investigating how some of the key facets of their working lives have changed over the last 50 years and are shaping their future.
Despite its considerable size and international trading dimensions, the art and antiques market has often been characterised in the past as a specialised and elitist trading ground of wealthy collectors and aesthetic experts. The opacity of the dealer sector of the market in particular, combined with many unique trading practices, has also kept it relatively isolated from mainstream research on the art market. What research exists on dealers is confined to quantitative surveys of the market alongside art-historical reviews, biographies and anecdotes. This research is designed to go some way towards filling the gap in the literature, by presenting the findings of qualitative research gathered directly from CINOA dealers in 2010 on a range of topics related to their work and the market in which they function.
1.1 Research and Methodology The information presented in this report is based around two primary research instruments:
1. A series of in-depth dealer interviews 2. A global collectors’ survey
Around 45 dealers were interviewed by phone from the CINOA membership, and asked to discuss a range of topics concerning their backgrounds, their business models and key issues affecting them in the art and antiques markets. Presidents from associations around the world chose dealers from their memberships to take part. Interviews lasted on average around 60 minutes but ranged from 30 minutes to two hours. To add depth to the findings, some key experts in the market with long associations with dealers through service provision and adjacent businesses were also interviewed.
An online survey of art collectors was distributed via The Antiques Trade Gazette and to subscribers of Brandt Publications in the US (including Art in America, The Magazine Antiques, and Modern) to elicit the views of a selection of buyers of art and antiques on the importance
8 Historical & Future Perspectives
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