IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jculte/v38y2014i1p85-104.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The auction market for artworks and their physical dimensions: Australia—1986 to 2009

Author

Listed:
  • Helen Higgs
  • John Forster

Abstract

Within a hedonic pricing model, the preferences of Australian art purchasers are investigated. Emphasis is placed on the impact of an artwork’s dimensions upon its auction price. A salient aspect of this is the first test of the ‘golden ratio’ hypothesis in a market situation. It is concluded that purchasers prefer paintings that deviate from the golden rule. The ‘orientation’ of works (portrait, landscape or square) as well as size also helps determine price. The impact of winning the Archibald portraiture prize (Australia’s foremost art prize) is found to have significant and positive impacts on winning artists’ prices. This suggests that purchasers are not fully informed. In addition, a previously unsuspected relationship between artwork dimensions and Archibald prize winners was found. As well as purchasers’ preferences, the artists’ choices of the dimensions of their artworks are considered. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Helen Higgs & John Forster, 2014. "The auction market for artworks and their physical dimensions: Australia—1986 to 2009," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 38(1), pages 85-104, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jculte:v:38:y:2014:i:1:p:85-104
    DOI: 10.1007/s10824-012-9197-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10824-012-9197-z
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10824-012-9197-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James Pesando & Pauline Shum, 1999. "The Returns to Picasso's Prints and to Traditional Financial Assets, 1977 to 1996," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 23(3), pages 181-190, August.
    2. Baumol, William J, 1986. "Unnatural Value: Or Art Investment as Floating Crap Game," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 10-14, May.
    3. Buelens, Nathalie & Ginsburgh, Victor, 1993. "Revisiting Baumol's 'art as floating crap game'," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 1351-1371, October.
    4. Luc Renneboog, 2002. "The monetary appreciation of paintings: from realism to Magritte," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 26(3), pages 331-358, May.
    5. Renneboog, L.D.R. & Spaenjers, C., 2009. "The Iconic Boom in Modern Russian Art," Discussion Paper 2009-70, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    6. Heinrich W. Ursprung & Christian Wiermann, 2011. "Reputation, Price, And Death: An Empirical Analysis Of Art Price Formation," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 49(3), pages 697-715, July.
    7. Jianping Mei & Michael Moses, 2002. "Art as an Investment and the Underperformance of Masterpieces," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1656-1668, December.
    8. G. Candela & A. Scorcu, 1997. "A Price Index for Art Market Auctions," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 21(3), pages 175-196, September.
    9. Olivier Chanel & Louis-André Gérard-Varet & Victor Ginsburgh, 1996. "The relevance of hedonic price indices," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 20(1), pages 1-24, March.
    10. O. Chanel & L. A. Gerard-Varet & V. Ginsburgh, 1994. "Prices and Returns on Paintings: An Exercise on How to Price the Priceless," The Geneva Risk and Insurance Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics (The Geneva Association), vol. 19(1), pages 7-21, June.
    11. William N. Goetzmann & Luc Renneboog & Christophe Spaenjers, 2011. "Art and Money," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 222-226, May.
    12. repec:adr:anecst:y:1994:i:35:p:06 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Corinna Czujack, 1997. "Picasso Paintings at Auction, 1963–1994," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 21(3), pages 229-247, September.
    14. Marilena Locatelli Biey & Roberto Zanola, 1999. "Investment in Paintings: A Short-Run Price Index," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 23(3), pages 209-219, August.
    15. Richard Agnello & Renée Pierce, 1996. "Financial returns, price determinants, and genre effects in American art investment," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 20(4), pages 359-383, December.
    16. Orley Ashenfelter & Kathryn Graddy, 2003. "Auctions and the Price of Art," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 41(3), pages 763-787, September.
    17. de la BARRE, M. & DOCCLO, S. & GINSBURGH, V., 1994. "Returns of impressionist, modern and contemporary European paintings," LIDAM Reprints CORE 1114, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    18. Anderson, Robert C, 1974. "Paintings as an Investment," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 12(1), pages 13-26, March.
    19. Helen Higgs & Andrew Worthington, 2005. "Financial Returns and Price Determinants in the Australian Art Market, 1973–2003," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 81(253), pages 113-123, June.
    20. Victor Ginsburgh, 2003. "Awards, Success and Aesthetic Quality in the Arts," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(2), pages 99-111, Spring.
    21. Zanola, Roberto, 2007. "The Dynamics of Art Prices: The Selection Corrected Repeat-Sales Index," POLIS Working Papers 76, Institute of Public Policy and Public Choice - POLIS.
    22. R. Ekelund & Rand Ressler & John Watson, 2000. "The ``Death-Effect'' in Art Prices: A Demand-Side Exploration," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 24(4), pages 283-300, November.
    23. Helen Higgs, 2010. "Australian Art Market Prices during the Global Financial Crisis and two earlier decades," Discussion Papers in Economics economics:201003, Griffith University, Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics.
    24. Chanel, O. & Gerard, L.A. & Ginsburgh, V., 1992. "The Relevence of Hedonic Price Indices the Case of Paintings," G.R.E.Q.A.M. 92a19, Universite Aix-Marseille III.
    25. Pesando, James E, 1993. "Art as an Investment: The Market for Modern Prints," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(5), pages 1075-1089, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. M. W. Luke Chan & Dan Sabrina Gong & Terry A. Yip, 2020. "Return on violin and macroeconomic fluctuation," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 44(2), pages 339-346, June.
    2. Federico Etro & Elena Stepanova, 2017. "Art collections and taste in the Spanish Siglo de Oro," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 41(3), pages 309-335, August.
    3. Shailendra Gurjar & Usha Ananthakumar, 2023. "The economics of art: price determinants and returns on investment in Indian paintings," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 50(6), pages 839-859, January.
    4. Shailendra Gurjar & Usha Ananthakumar, 2023. "Presale Estimates and Auction Prices in Indian Art Market: Accuracy, Determinants and Motivations," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 21(3), pages 555-567, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marinelli, Nicoletta & Palomba, Giulio, 2011. "A model for pricing Italian Contemporary Art paintings at auction," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 212-224, May.
    2. Charlin, Ventura & Cifuentes, Arturo, 2013. "A new financial metric for the art market," MPRA Paper 50186, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Victor Ginsburgh & Jianping Mei & Michael Moses, 2006. "On the computation of art indices in art," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/7290, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    4. Luc Renneboog & Christophe Spaenjers, 2013. "Buying Beauty: On Prices and Returns in the Art Market," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(1), pages 36-53, February.
    5. Fedderke, Johannes W. & Li, Kaini, 2020. "Art in Africa: Hedonic price analysis of the South African fine art auction market, 2009–2014," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 88-101.
    6. Régis Blazy & Marie Blum, 2022. "Horizontal and vertical differentiation in comic art auctions," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(3), pages 1382-1415, July.
    7. Demir, Ender & Gozgor, Giray & Sari, Emre, 2018. "Dynamics of the Turkish paintings market: A comprehensive empirical study," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 180-194.
    8. Petrov, Nikita & Ratnikova, Tatiana, 2017. "The price index for the paintings of Henri Matisse: The sensitivity to the method of construction and connection with stock market and art indices," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 47, pages 49-73.
    9. Ünsal Özdilek, 2013. "Visual autocorrelation of prices," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 37(2), pages 203-223, May.
    10. Vecco, Marilena & Zanola, Roberto, 2017. "Don’t let the easy be the enemy of the good. Returns from art investments: What is wrong with it?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 120-129.
    11. Belma Öztürkkal & Aslı Togan-Eğrican, 2020. "Art investment: hedging or safe haven through financial crises," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 44(3), pages 481-529, September.
    12. Kraeussl, Roman & Logher, Robin, 2010. "Emerging art markets," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 301-318, December.
    13. Le Fur, Eric, 2020. "Dynamics of the global fine art market prices," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 167-180.
    14. Kräussl, Roman & Elsland, Niels van, 2008. "Constructing the true art market index: A novel 2-step hedonic approach and its application to the German art market," CFS Working Paper Series 2008/11, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    15. Garay, Urbi, 2021. "Determinants of art prices and performance by movements: Long-run evidence from an emerging market," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 413-426.
    16. Agnello, Richard J., 2016. "Do U.S. paintings follow the CAPM? Findings disaggregated by subject, artist, and value of the work," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(3), pages 403-411.
    17. Renneboog, L.D.R. & Spaenjers, C., 2014. "Investment Returns and Economic Fundamentals in International Art Markets," Discussion Paper 2014-018, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    18. Nauro F. Campos & Renata Leite Barbosa, 2009. "Paintings and numbers: an econometric investigation of sales rates, prices, and returns in Latin American art auctions," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 61(1), pages 28-51, January.
    19. Zhitkov, Konstantin & Ratnikova, Tatiana, 2014. "The construction of hedonic price indices for fauvists’ paintings," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 35(3), pages 59-85.
    20. Aylin Seckin, 2006. "Art as an Investment under High Inflation: an Empirical Study on Turkish Paintings," EcoMod2006 272100081, EcoMod.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Hedonic pricing; Artwork dimensions; Archibald prize; C23; C33; G11;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • C33 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jculte:v:38:y:2014:i:1:p:85-104. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.