Feel Free to Match the Couch: A Guide to Buying Art Online

Popping up, all over the internet, like bald little mushroom heads in the corner of an overgrown garden, are dozens of buy-art-online sites. Their spores are in the air. There’s a new one every day, with offerings that cover the whole gamut of affordability, quality and snob appeal.

It’s time to match the couch, my friends — shamelessly, and in the privacy of your own homes; the way you shop for porn.

BZA CO

Art Market Recovery: Tracing Improvements

$48 Mil in 2009 for Raphael's Head of a Muse

As I continue to study the art market’s very slight, but seemingly strong rebound, I will continue to compile reports which should lend insight, not only to the workings of the art market as it improves, but to trends that should grow out of this latest bubble burst. What follows are some things to look out for and what they mean for the future.

TREND: Wherein I Speculate About Auction Houses Buying Galleries

Speculation that the auction houses are building a wall of wisdom between themselves and the next market fluctuation starts right here, my friends.

A GOOD BASQUIAT

“A good Basquiat was made in 1982 or 1983, and contains a head, a crown and the color red”.

BITS: White Column’s Celebrity Line Up, Simon de Pury, Dumas’ Fury

And in a very amusing tale of what appears to be petty vengeance, a woman scorned, in this case Marlene Dumas, has, it seems, blacklisted one Craig Robins, because he made her look bad by selling one of her works from his collection to David Zwirner Gallery.