The 12 Million Stuffed Shark, Don Thompson
The 12 Million Stuffed Shark, Don Thompson
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The $12 Million Stuffed Shark
The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art

Author: Don Thompson

Narrator: Adam Verner

Unabridged: 10 hr 29 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 02/07/2017

Categories: Nonfiction, Art


Synopsis

Why would a smart New York investment banker pay $12 million for the decaying, stuffed carcass of a shark? By what alchemy does Jackson Pollock's drip painting No. 5, 1948 sell for $140 million?

Intriguing and entertaining, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark is a Freakonomics approach to the economics and psychology of the contemporary art world. Why were record prices achieved at auction for works by 131 contemporary artists in 2006 alone, with astonishing new heights reached in 2007? Don Thompson explores the money, lust, and self-aggrandizement of the art world in an attempt to determine what makes a particular work valuable while others are ignored.

This book is the first to look at the economics and the marketing strategies that enable the modern art market to generate such astronomical prices. Drawing on interviews with both past and present executives of auction houses and art dealerships, artists, and the buyers who move the market, Thompson launches the listener on a journey of discovery through the peculiar world of modern art. Surprising, passionate, gossipy, and revelatory, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark reveals a great deal that even experienced auction purchasers do not know.

About Don Thompson

Don Thompson is an emeritus professor at the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto, where he taught strategy and marketing. He has also taught at Harvard Business School and the London School of Economics. Don is the author of The Supermodel and the Brillo Box: Back Stories and Peculiar Economics from the World of Contemporary Art.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Caroline on September 11, 2019

Only yesterday, Tracey Emin's installation "My Bed" was sold at auction for £2.5 million. Saatchi Gallery. This book explains such phenomena. It was written for people who read about multi-million dollar prices for contemporary artworks and wonder how such eye-watering figures are reached. Most o......more

Goodreads review by Mike on July 19, 2012

Disclaimer, cause I might as well just get it out of the way: If contemporary art makes your blood boil, your hopes for western civilization sputter, or gag reflex engage, this is not the book for you. If you’re in this group, it might be better to just go on your merry way and pretend you never hea......more

Goodreads review by Farjam on April 03, 2023

Two months ago I saw Damien Hirst's dot painting for the first time, I was curious as to why it was so expensive. I did some research on this and discovered that Damien did not even touch the canvas and that it was created by technicians under Damien's supervision. When I realised how different conte......more