Why would someone spend $12-million on an enormous stuffed shark suspended in a tank of formaldehyde? When American billionaire collector Steve Cohen purchased that piece by British artist Damien Hirst in 2004, economics professor and art lecturer Don Thompson was driven to seek an answer.
    Thompson’s journey into the rarefied world of contemporary art has resulted in an impeccably timed, in-depth exposé of today’s dramatic – and unprecedented – shift of power away from the critic and curator toward the super-collector, the auction house, the artist, and the dealer. Forget critical judgment, argues Thompson, today’s art world is all about branding. If an artist, dealer, or even collector is properly branded, he inevitably acquires a power that will lead to demand for his work and corresponding high prices.
    It’s a persuasive, if crude, observation that occasionally overlooks the subtleties of the art world. Using the Japanese conceptual artist On Kawara as an example, Thompson suggests that the artist’s “name brand” explains his high prices. He virtually ignores the fact that Kawara is also a critically acclaimed artist.
    Thompson’s lack of belief in the conceptual value of art (a value upon which most contemporary art relies) is the book’s weakness. Nonetheless, chapters on artists Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, and Tracey Emin explain the artist-as-marketer phenomenon, while chapters on mega-dealers like New York’s Larry Gagosian shed light on the power of established reputations.
    Thomspon offers a thorough analysis of how the auction process leads to such dramatic prices. He cleverly uses economic terminology to explain buyer behaviour, so that artworks become “positional goods,” whose value exists only in relation to others, and the pricing of art is explained using the Veblen effect, where the buyer’s satisfaction comes in part from the high price paid for it.
    The book’s greatest strength, though, is the number of fascinating fly-on-the-wall anecdotes scattered throughout. In the chapter on art dealers, we learn that early 20th-century dealer Joseph Henry Duveen set the precedent for today’s branded dealers by offering his clients such incentives as sought-after country house invitations and introductions to distinguished museum trustees.
    Thompson’s sharp analysis of the art world from an outsider’s perspective should be taken with a grain of salt, but overall this book is an enjoyable read at a moment when cynicism about the value of contemporary art runs rampant among artists, collectors, and art-world observers.