Since the late 1990s, contemporary art markets have emerged rapidly outside of Europe and the United States. China is r s1the world's second largest art market. In counties as diverse as Brazil, Turkey and India, modern and contemporary art has been recognized as a source of status, or a potential investment tool among the new middle classes. At art auctions in the US, London and Hong Kong, new buyers from emerging economies have driven up prices to record levels. The result of these changes has been an increase in complexity, interconnectedness, stratification and differentiation of contemporary art markets. Our understanding of them is still in its early stages and empirical research in the field of globalization of high arts is still scarce. This book brings together recent, multidisciplinary, cutting edge research on the globalization of art markets. Focusing on different regions, including China, Russia, India and Japan, as well as different institutions and organizations, the chapters in this volume study the extent to which art markets indeed become global. They show the various barriers to, and the effects of, globalization on the art market's organizational dynamics and the everyday narratives of people working within the art industry. In doing so, they recognize the coexistence of various ecologies of contemporary art exchange, and sketch the presence of resilient local networks of actors and organizations. Some chapters show Europe and the US continue to dominate, especially when taking art market rankings and the most powerful events such as Art Basel into account. However, other chapters argue that things such as art fairs are truly global events and that the 'architecture of the art market' which has originally been developed in Europe and the US from the 19th century onwards, is increasingly adopted across the world.

"Olav Velthuis has built a graceful, sturdy bridge across a torrent: the turbulent flow of art markets. On one side we have the supposition that art and money follow incompatible principles; on the other, the claim that markets reduce all commodities to creatures of supply and demand. By looking closely at the actual culture and social connections of art markets in New York and Amsterdam, he arrives at insight after insight into a meaning-drenched form of commerce, and by extension into the place of meanings in markets of every kind. This bridge stands firm."--Viviana A. Zelizer, author of "The Purchase of Intimacy" and "The Social Meaning of Money"

"A superb book! "Talking Prices" is the best thing I have yet to read on the way art markets-in any period-work. Written in the most fluid style, it is a pleasure to read and contains a great many juicy details that shed light on the inner workings of dealers and sellers and artists. Furthermore, it will carve out a space in the economic sociology of art that is occupied, at present, by nobody. Without question, it will leap across disciplinary boundaries, especially that huge and often ugly one between 'sociologists' and 'economists.' What tops it all off is that Velthuis is also an expert in art history and understands the aesthetic values and norms of composing art that matter not only to the artists who are selling to galleries, but also to the way in which artworks are sold and to the culture that shapes the way art markets operate. This is a major accomplishment."--Jack Amariglio, Merrimack College, coauthor of "Postmodern Moments in Modern Economics"

"A brilliant piece of work. Velthuis has taken the hardest case, and gottenout of it the best laws: about pricing, which the economist wants to read as prudence and the anthropologist wants to leave to the economist; and about high art, which the anthropologist wants to read as power and the economist wants to leave to the anthropologist. It's a brave book, and accomplishes what it ventures."--Deirdre McCloskey, University of Illinois, Chicago, author of "Knowledge and Persuasion in Economics"