This the feature article from our Issue #1, 2025 FIRMA FORUM Newsletter. Members can view the entire issue, and past issues, in our archive
By Ronald Varney
The old art market: tradition
Back in the 1990s, during what might be recalled as the glory days of the old, traditional art market, Sotheby’s and Christie’s each year would publish a massive hardbound review of the previous auction season, highlighting sales across the globe in many diverse collecting categories. And while these books included features on collecting trends, noteworthy museum exhibitions and profiles of eminent figures in the art market, they were mainly a Greatest Hits album for the two houses. Page after page of lavish photography and rapturous prose proclaimed the triumphs of the previous year in salerooms around the world, notably in New York, London, Geneva and Hong Kong. Read more...
