Conference // Between Canon and Commodity: The Value, Impact, and Ethics of Art Expertise
Termindetails
Wann
18.03.2027 um 16:00
Art
Wo
In 2022, the tondo Madonna and Child with Three Angels attributed to Sandro Botticelli, with a composition identical to that in the Uffizi, was sold by Christie's for $48,480,000. In the catalog entry, the attribution is constituted by numerous authoritative voices who have discussed the painting since its appearance in the mid-19th century. This painting is just one example of an expansion of an artist’s oeuvre performed and sanctioned through the art market until today.
The practice of authentication of works of art for the art market by experts is inextricably linked with canon and commodity, that is the enhancement of their position in a cultural and commercial hierarchy. Assessing and appraising artefacts can be deployed qualitatively, as in, for example, connoisseurship, to position the object within art historiographical narratives, or quantitatively, as a transactional agent in the marketplace. While the art historian’s authentication regulates and defines these hierarchies and relevance, verdicts also impact monetary estimates, generating a powerful tension between art history and the art trade. This shapes the trajectory of artworks, the historical narratives associated with them, and their commercial worth. Due to this intimate interdependence, the unavoidably close relationships between art institutions and scholars on the one hand, and the art market, its advisors, mediators and dealers on the other hand, promote opacity and secrecy in the practice and use of expertise, most especially in matters of potential, and often surreptitious, financial gain.
ORGANISATION: Matilde Cartolari, Lynn Catterson, Christian Fuhrmeister, Joanna Smalcerz
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Sponsored by Fritz Thyssen Stiftung für Wissenschaftsförderung
PROGRAMME
DAY 1, MARCH 17, 2027
10:45 | Early Bird Guided Tour: Analogue Resources for Art History / Art Market Studies at the ZI
11:15 | Meet & Greet (coffee served)
11:45 | Welcome & Introduction by the organizers
12:00 | Gail Feigenbaum // Art Expertise and “The Catalogue Raisonné: A Social Practice”
Session 1: The Formative Phase of the Tension
12:15 | Giuseppe Rizzo // Expertise and the International Old Masters Market in the Nineteenth Century: The Case of Carlo Galvani (1830–1866)
12:35 | Cristiano Giometti/Antonio Marras // The Market Value of Expertise: Stefano and Ugo Bardini between Art History and the Art Trade
12:55 | Diana Davis // Connoisseurs: The Rise of the Dealer in Decorative Art, 1880–1930
13:15 | Daniel Potter // Access, Expertise, and the Guarantee of Quality: The Valuation and Supply of Nile Valley Archaeology 1880–1939
13:35 | Discussion with response by Joanna Smalcerz
14:00 | Light lunch
Session 2: Canonization between Market and Scholarship
14:30 | Joanna Gohmann // Co-Producing the Canon: C. T. Loo and the Market Origins of Asian Art Historical Authority
14:50 | Denise Budd // On the Cutting Edge Too Soon: Ffoulke’s Expertise Before the American Market for Tapestries
15:10 | Jia Liu // Narrative. Aesthetics. Commodity. From Bedcover to Blue-Chip: Expertise, Canonization, and the Commodification of Quilts
15:30 | Discussion with response by Lynn Catterson
16:00 | Coffee break
Session 3: Expertise and the Circulation of Art
16:30 | Elena Bertin // Temporary importation: an opaque instrument for the protection of artistic heritage in Italy in the aftermath of the first protection laws
16:50 | Lorenzo Colombo // The use of temporary importation in the records of the Milan Soprintendenza archive
17:10 | Discussion with response by Paolo Coen
17:40 | Refreshments
18:00 | Roundtable I: Insights & Takeaways from Sessions I to III
With Gail Feigenbaum, Dorothee Wimmer, Sharon Hecker, Paolo Coen
18:45 | Keynote by Frank Zöllner (moderated by Christian Fuhrmeister) // 450 Million: The Most Successful Commodification in the History of Art?
Followed by reception and dinner
DAY 2, MARCH 18, 2027
Session 4: Failure/Corruption of Expertise
9:00 | Meike Hopp // Sens unique – Sens pratique: The “Crisis” of Expertise on the German Art Market around 1930
9:20 | Eléonore Thole // The Administration of Dispossession: The Verwalter Performing Expertise in the Nazi-Occupied Dutch Art Market
9:50 | Fulvia Zaninelli // The Velázquez Affair: Attribution, Expertise, and Financial Liability in the Twentieth Century Art Trade
10:10 | Discussion with response by Dorothee Wimmer
10:45 | Coffee break
Session 5: Museums and Cultural Authority
11:15 | Rebecca Welkens // Museum Professionals in Action: Authentication Practices within the International Museum Association (1898–c. 1945)
11:35 | Fabian Jonietz // Dubious Display: Exhibitions in the Service of Promotion
11:55 | Reilly Clark // Making Markets, Making History: Museums and the Market for African Art, Past and Present
12:15 | Discussion with response by Matilde Cartolari
12:45 | Lunch (self-paying)
Session 6: Art Expertise in Times of AI
14:00 | Sandra M. Samolik // Algorithmic Expertise between Canon and Commodity: AI Attribution, and the Politics of Knowledge in Art Authentication
14:20 | Kiersten Thamm // Performing Expertise by Algorithm and by Archive: Power, Bias, and Purpose without Human Authentication
14:40 | Discussion with response by Sharon Hecker
15:10 | Concluding Roundtable: Ethics of Art Expertise Then and Now
16:00 | End of the conference
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The event will take place in a hybrid format. You can attend either in person or online via Zoom. Participation is free of charge. No registration is required for either in-person or online attendance.
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