Paintings and Numbers: An Econometric Investigation of Sales Rates, Prices and Returns in Latin American Art Auctions

Nauro Campos and Renata Leite Barbosa

No 6806, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: This paper uses a unique data set of Latin American paintings auctioned by Sotheby's between 1995 and 2002 to investigate several puzzles from the recent auctions literature. Our results suggest that: (1) the reputation of an artist and the provenance of the artwork, omitted variables in most previous studies, seem to be more important determinants of the sale price of a painting than standard factors, such as medium and size, (2) the opinion of art experts seems to be of limited use in predicting whether or not an artwork sells at auction, (3) there is little supporting evidence for the widespread notion that the best or more expensive artworks tend to generate above average returns (the "masterpiece effect"), although (4) there is strong evidence in our data for the declining price anomaly, or "afternoon effect."

Keywords: Art auctions; Declining price anomaly; Latin american art; Masterpiece effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D44 G11 L12 Z10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cul, nep-lam, nep-ltv and nep-mkt
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Paintings and numbers: an econometric investigation of sales rates, prices, and returns in Latin American art auctions (2009)
Working Paper: Paintings and Numbers: An Econometric Investigation of Sales Rates, Prices and Returns in Latin American Art Auctions (2008)
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