The Art Market May Not Be Big Enough for Money Laundering: In an opinion piece about Vladimir Putin’s hidden wealth, Anders Aslund gives us some interesting facts that are relevant to the ever-present conversation around the art market and money-laundering. One reason to believe the art market doesn’t see much money laundering is not that art dealers are saints but that the art market is too small to accommodate the massive flows of money coming into the US and UK:
- “In 2015, the U.S. treasury assessed that $300 billion a year was laundered in the United States. According to Raymond Baker, founder of Global Financial Integrity, in a good year, the U.S. government detects 0.1 percent of that money. The reason? Anonymous companies are allowed to invest in this country. The same is true of Britain, where the National Crime Agency estimates that $125 billion is laundered annually.” …
Marc Glimcher Says Pace Is Doing “Substantially More” Business Now Than When He Took Over: While we are gathering facts from the press, here’s some data on Pace Gallery from an article on Marc Glimcher’s taking over from his legendary father, Arne. Billionaire magazine says Pace was doing $450m in annual turnover in 2012. Since then, Marc has been investing in the business and expanding:
- In the last 10 years the number of artists and estates listed with Pace has grown from around 50 to 84. Testament to his vision, most that came on board with Arne have stayed, including 20th century canonical icons such as Robert Ryman, the estate of Agnes Martin, Chuck Close, Jean Dubuffet, Zhang Xiaogang and Willem de Kooning. Although he won’t say how much the gallery earns these days, it’s “substantially more” than its 2012 revenue. …
Hauser + Wirth Run Energy Centers to Counter Dwindling Gallery Goers: Iwan and Manuela Wirth were interviewed about their gallery empire on the occasion of Art Basel Hong Kong but they have an interesting perspective on what it takes to combat the dwindling foot traffic to galleries:
- “We don’t see our spaces as galleries, but as “energy centers.” We believe that education is an essential part of the gallery life—for us it’s an important part of giving-back and instilling the next generation with a firm love of art. In Somerset alone we welcome over 100 school groups every year, and we have similar activity in Los Angeles. Every show is underpinned by a strong education programme, consisting of practical workshops, activity guides and lectures. At a time when footfall in galleries is falling, we have found a way to develop audiences and bring record visitor numbers into our gallery spaces through our education programme.” …
The Guardian Goes on a Tour of Artists on Instagram: It’s rare that you see someone taking artists on Instagram seriously. But The Guardian’s Stuart Jeffries takes us through Cindy Sherman, Wolfgang Tillmans, Nan Goldin, Yoko Ono, Damien Hirst, Kenny Scharf and Ricard Prince to introduce us to this not-so-new way of getting closer to an artist’s view of the world.
