Galleries have to make strategic decisions about how to price their artists’ works when speculators flock to the secondary market. To explore the range of approaches, we examined the spread between the primary and secondary markets of 11 darlings of the auction circuit. Some of these artists have seen their primary and secondary prices rise in tandem; others are experiencing a yawning gap between the two.
Most galleries declined to disclose prices, so these numbers are gathered from sources familiar with the artists’ markets and typically reflect the state of play since their most recent solo exhibition or fair outing. Things may have changed since then. Auction information comes from the Artnet Price Database and Artnet Analytics.
