{"id":44092,"date":"2025-01-24T01:51:19","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T01:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/entertainment\/art\/the-catbird-seat-reagan-upshaw-fine-art\/"},"modified":"2025-01-24T01:51:19","modified_gmt":"2025-01-24T01:51:19","slug":"the-catbird-seat-reagan-upshaw-fine-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=44092","title":{"rendered":"The Catbird Seat – Reagan Upshaw Fine Art"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Fortunately for Magnus Resch, art dealers and the owners of art world databases did not have to hire The Jackal to eliminate him when he unveiled an app in 2016 that would, he claimed, lead to total transparency in the art market.\u00a0 Using the app, visitors to an art fair or a gallery could scan an offered artwork with their cell phones and immediately learn the name of the artwork, its artist, its previous exhibitions and sales, and the current price being asked for similar works by competitors.\u00a0 Lawsuits from dealers and databases concerning copyright and intellectual property infringement succeeded in getting the app removed from the Apple store.<\/span><\/p>\n

Back when I began working for a gallery, dealers were in the catbird seat.\u00a0 We had the information on previous auction sales because we had attended those sales and had written down the sale prices (and the names of the buyers, if we recognized them) in the auction catalogues.\u00a0 We also made notes on a work\u2019s physical condition.\u00a0 Those catalogues were an indispensable part of our libraries. The <\/span>Art Sales Index<\/span><\/i> published a comprehensive listing of artists\u2019 results at auction, but there were no photos in the book, it came out only once a year, and the description of the work was often simply, \u201cLandscape, oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches.\u201d\u00a0 If you didn\u2019t have ready access to the information, there was no way that you could know whether the price being asked for a work was fair market value.<\/span><\/p>\n

Databases such as Artnet and Askart changed the art market completely.\u00a0 Now anyone considering a work of art can look up the results for that artist with a few keystrokes.\u00a0 Over the past 25 years, dealers have quit buying art for inventory at auction, since any would-be buyer will be able to find out the price the dealer paid and may balk at paying more than a modest commission.<\/span><\/p>\n

But these changes aren\u2019t enough for Magnus Resch. In a recent talk he gave at Art Law Day, an event co-sponsored by the Appraisers Association of America, Resch pretty much consigned gallery owners to the dustbin of history.\u00a0 They will cease to be the gatekeepers to the art market as a new generation of collectors, accustomed to buying online, will now buy directly from the artists\u2019 websites.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To add even more transparency, Resch said, artworks when they are sold will be accompanied by non-fungible tokens, digital identifiers recorded on a blockchain (and don\u2019t ask me what a blockchain is), and those identifiers will document every subsequent resale of the piece.\u00a0 The issue of artists receiving a commission when their works are resold has been a contentious one for many years, but such blockchain records would certainly strengthen an artist\u2019s hand in pursuing such commissions.<\/span><\/p>\n

The role of dealers will shift from being gallery owners to functioning much more like artists\u2019 agents, according to Resch, similar to agents in Hollywood who keep track of promising opportunities and lobby the production companies to get starring roles for their clients.\u00a0 In the future, artists\u2019 agents will strive to get their artists included in the exhibitions and other venues that will make them stars.<\/span><\/p>\n

And the art world is all about stardom.\u00a0 Resch pointed out that each year 20% of all artists account for 50% of all art sales, in terms of dollar value.\u00a0 \u201cWho knows the name of the player who is currently the number 35 seed in pro tennis?\u201d he asked.\u00a0 Like those good-but-not-great tennis players toiling in obscurity, traveling around the world to play at minor tournaments, and barely breaking even financially, artists who haven\u2019t made it big in their first 5 or so exhibitions might as well hang up their brushes.\u00a0 If you want a real career in art, you have to hit the big time while you\u2019re still young.<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s an odd contradiction between Resch\u2019s announced desire to bring transparency to the art market, a transparency which he says will help both artists and collectors, and his view of the art market as the playground of a few real collectors.\u00a0 Actually, you can delete the word \u201creal\u201d in the preceding sentence, as Resch considers the term \u201ccollector\u201d to apply only to the 6,000 persons who will spend at least $100,000 per year over a five-year period.\u00a0 The rest of us are simply occasional acquirers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Has Resch seen the future, and does it work?\u00a0 Well, crazes come and go in the art world.\u00a0 The artists who are this year\u2019s hot IPO\u2019s, to use a business analogy, may be penny stocks in 20 years, their works de-accessioned by major collectors, who may themselves be relegated to sideline status as a new generation finds their taste old-fashioned.\u00a0 As on Wall Street, no one has a crystal ball.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re one of those who might quaintly be termed \u201cart lovers\u201d and don\u2019t have $500,000 to spend on building a \u201creal\u201d art collection, find a piece that speaks to you, get information wherever you can find it (or hire me to do so<\/a>), and make a considered purchase.\u00a0 Then enjoy it while you experience the difference it makes in your home.\u00a0 You\u2019ll never be in the catbird seat, but at least you won\u2019t have The Jackal on your trail.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fortunately for Magnus Resch, art dealers and the owners of art world databases did not have to hire The Jackal to eliminate him when he unveiled an app in 2016 that would, he claimed, lead to total transparency in the art market.\u00a0 Using the app, visitors to an art fair or a gallery could scan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[1885,27187,788,18810,8348,18811],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-44092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","tag-art","tag-catbird","tag-fine","tag-reagan","tag-seat","tag-upshaw"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Catbird Seat - Reagan Upshaw Fine Art - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=44092\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Catbird Seat - Reagan Upshaw Fine Art - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fortunately for Magnus Resch, art dealers and the owners of art world databases did not have to hire The Jackal to eliminate him when he unveiled an app in 2016 that would, he claimed, lead to total transparency in the art market.\u00a0 Using the app, visitors to an art fair or a gallery could scan […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=44092\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-01-24T01:51:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/skynews-day-of-the-jackal-eddie-redmayne_6735018.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"432\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=44092#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=44092\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\"},\"headline\":\"The Catbird Seat – Reagan Upshaw Fine Art\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-24T01:51:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=44092\"},\"wordCount\":887,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=44092#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/skynews-day-of-the-jackal-eddie-redmayne_6735018.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Art\",\"Catbird\",\"Fine\",\"Reagan\",\"Seat\",\"Upshaw\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Art\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=44092#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=44092\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=44092\",\"name\":\"The Catbird Seat - 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