The Turkish art market sings a familiar refrain:

“The art market today is not like how it was in the 19th century, now people act on speculation,” Artun of Gallery Nev said. “With the privatization of art, gallery owners and collectors started collaborating on creating these record-breaking prices. They use auction houses as their platforms and everybody, including the media, applauds these results. So now they became the authority in deciding what is ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ not the art critics.” […]

“Unfortunately, all the media coverage about that auction focused on the prices. There was no mention of the aesthetic value,” Ali Artun, an architect, writer and owner of Gallery Nev, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review. “It is as if the higher the market value rises, the more valuable Turkish painting will become and [the more] able to compete with Western art.”

Still, many gallery owners consider the news positive.

“Turkey is finding its place in the global art economy,” Nadir Erenler from Gallery Artist told the Daily News. “Before, there was a huge gap between the prices of Western art and art produced here. These recent developments show that the gap is closing.”

Money Talks, Art Hopes (Hurriyet Daily News)