An Economic Strategy to Exploit the Rent of Notoriety in an Emblematic Case Study

This chapter examines the economic stakes of posthumous works through a case study of François Pompon (1855–1933). The French sculptor became famous ten years before his death, when he sent one of his sculptures, White Bear (1921), to the Salon d'Automne in Paris in 1922. His late fame has favored the multiplication of posthumous works. This study shows how developing a strategy of vertical differentiation, allowing the same object to be available in different qualities, reconciles the necessity of a large supply to stimulate the market—and to exploit a notoriety rent—with the imperative of rarity, a basic characteristic of the art market. We study the theoretical consequences of such a strategy on prices when it is difficult to distinguish the different characteristics of a same work of art. Then, by using a database composed of 228 White Bear sculptures proposed at auction between 1985 and 2021, we highlight the fussiness of prices when buyers cannot clearly distinguish which works are authentic, mainly because of the particular property of this characteristic, which falls under the category of credence goods.