Abstract
The sheer volume of data generated on the Internet has reached unprecedented numerical heights and has enabled new data-driven methodologies to study art and its markets. Yet, this type of data-driven research has also generated several unexpected methodological constraints for art markets researchers, particularly due to informational asymmetry. This observation is related to how various players on the Internet make data available, as well as summarize, transmit, gather, and access those data globally. It is not our ambition to present another historiography of art markets research, past and present. Rather, and in keeping with the theme of this special issue, we would like to focus on a few key constraints related to data-driven, contemporary art markets research, the Internet, and the structural recurrence of imperfect data. This contribution focuses on four areas of Internet research and its methods that are particularly problematic for researchers today, namely (1) auctions and online auctions; (2) dealers and galleries; (3) art indices; and (4) art fairs.
Highlights
At present, online data about art, its production, its history, reception, sales and consumption are abundantly available on all kinds of Internet platforms
Not art markets scholars, were among the first to experiment with new digital platforms
In keeping with the theme of this special issue, we would like to focus on a few key methodological constraints related to data-driven, contemporary art markets research, the Internet and the structural recurrence of imperfect data
Summary
Online data about art, its production, its history, reception, sales and consumption are abundantly available on all kinds of Internet platforms. Data-driven research on art markets and its attendant new methodologies are historically the province of economists, cultural economists, social historians and sociologists.3 These studies, in turn, have opened many new perspectives for historians, art historians and a new breed of hybrid, cross-disciplinary researchers interested in art markets as objects of inquiry, here conveniently referred to as art markets scholars. In keeping with the theme of this special issue, we would like to focus on a few key methodological constraints related to data-driven, contemporary art markets research, the Internet and the structural recurrence of imperfect data This contribution focuses on four areas of Internet research and its methods that are problematic for researchers today, namely (1) auctions and online auctions; (2) dealers and galleries; (3) art indices; and (4) art fairs
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