by Jon Lackman | 1 April 2010 | Uncategorized
Souren Melikian writes in Art+Auction:
Art is all about perception. The sales of Old Masters at Christie’s and Sotheby’s New York in January offered a fascinating illustration of how shifts in perception can influence prices. As greater works become rarer, substitutes of lesser quality are being upgraded in status. At the same time another, more insidious process, rarely acknowledged by professionals, keeps down the prices of some admirable masterpieces. Because buyers have fewer and fewer works on which to train their eyes, a dwindling number of connoisseurs can recognize great paintings.
Re the latter argument, shouldn’t the movement of great paintings from private to public collections provide connoisseurs with more great paintings “on which to train their eyes”? After all, connoisseurs don’t just look at paintings that come up at auction. Melikian writes:
… now that superior versions by Jan Breughel the Elder come up [for sale] only at very distant intervals, his images have become hazy in the minds of collectors, who are no longer in a position to make comparisons that would be unflattering to the son’s imitations.
But any connoisseur who frequents European museums should be familiar with superior paintings by the elder Breughel, right?
