Anonymous Art at Auction

Anne-Sophie V. Radermecker, Ph.D. (2019) is a research associate at the Université libre de Bruxelles. She has published papers operating at the intersection of art history and cultural economics, including contributions to Arts and the market, JCEC, JEBO, and NKJ.

• ContentsAcknowledgementsList of Figures, Tables, and GraphsAbbreviationsIntroduction1 The Power of the Artist’s Name1.1 The Artist’s Name and Its Attributes1.2 Attributionism or a “History of the Art of Names”1.3 The Relationship between the Artist’s Name and the Work’s Cultural and Economic Value1.4 The Cognitive Impact of the Artist’s Name1.5 The Artist’s Name as Brand Name1.6 The Monetary Weight of the Artist’s Name2 Anonymity and Flemish Painting2.1 The Painting of the Southern Low Countries in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries2.2 Pictures by and for the Market2.3 Between Identity and Anonymity: The Duality of Flemish Painting2.4 A School and Artists Subject to Changing Preferences2.5 A Complex Authentication Process2.6 The Advent of Technical Art History and the Relativity of Authorship2.7 Perception of the Anonymity of Flemish Paintings2.8 Identification Strategies in Use in the Market for Flemish Paintings3 Methodological Considerations3.1 Chronological and Geographical Framework3.2 Sources and Data3.3 Hedonic Regression3.4 Research Limits3.5 Description of the Database4 Empirical Analysis of the Market for Flemish Paintings4.1 Price Index (1946–2015)4.2 The Main Price Determinants of the Market for Flemish Paintings4.3 Price Indices by Identification Strategy5 A Name, Indirectly. The Authentication Scale and the Economy of Attribution Qualifiers5.1 Introduction5.2 A Revised Authentication System: Christie’s and Sotheby’s Repositioning on Attribution5.3 The Impact of the Authentication Scale on Buyers’ Willingness to Pay5.4 Management and Promotion of Indirect Names5.5 Lexicometric Analysis of Auction Houses’ Discourse5.6 Qualitative Analysis of Auction Houses’ Discourse5.7 The Reception of New Attribution Practices in the Market for Flemish Paintings5.8 The Attitude to Non-autograph Works: Prospects for Change5.9 Partial Conclusions6 A Fictitious Identity. The Market for Masters with Provisional Names6.1 Introduction6.2 The Provisional Name: Historiography of a Practice Inherited from a Traditional Connoisseurship6.3 The Market for Masters with Provisional Names: Analysis and Discussion6.4 Partial Conclusions7 Paintings without Names. The Market Reception of Spatiotemporal Designations7.1 Introduction7.2 The Critical Reception of Antwerp Mannerism or the “Ungrateful Task of Bringing Order into the Chaos”7.3 Managing Anonymity: A Nomenclature of Spatiotemporal Designations7.4 The Market for Anonymous Flemish Paintings: Analysis and Discussion7.5 Sales Strategies: Indirect or Spatiotemporal Designations?7.6 Thoughts on an Authentication System Reducing the Impact of Anonymity on the Cultural and Economic Value of Old Master Paintings7.7 Partial ConclusionsConclusionAppendixBibliographyIndex