Georgina Adam – författare

This book lifts the lid on some of the excesses that the 21st-century explosion of the contemporary art market brought in its wake, notably at its very top end. The buying of art as an investment, temptations to forgery, tax evasion, money laundering and pressure to produce more and more art all form part of this story, as do issues over authentication and the impact of the enhanced use of financial instruments on art transactions.Drawing on a series of revealing interviews with artists, lawyers, dealers, law-enforcement agents, tax specialists and collectors, the author charts the voracious commodification of artists and art objects, and art's position in the clandestine puzzle of the highest echelons of global capital. Adam's revelations appear even timelier in the wake of the Panama Papers disclosures, for example incorporating examples of the way tax havens have been used to stash art transactions – and ownership – away from public scrutiny.With the same captivating style of her bestselling Big Bucks: The Explosion of the Art Market in the 21st Century, Georgina Adam casts her judicious glance over a section of the art market whose controversies and intrigues will be of eye-opening interest to both art-world players and observers.

The private collector’s museum has become a phenomenon of the 21st century. There are some 400 of them around the world, and an astonishing 70% of those devoted to contemporary art were founded in the past 20 years. Although private museums have been accused of being tax-evading vanity projects or ‘tombs for trophies’, the picture is far more complex and nuanced, as art-market journalist Georgina Adam (author of best-selling Big Bucks and Dark Side of the Boom) shows in her compelling new book.Georgina Adam’s investigation into this extraordinary proliferation, based on her recent visits to over 50 private spaces across the US, Europe, China and elsewhere, delves into the reasons behind this boom, the different motivations of collectors to display their art in public, and the various ways in which the institutions are financed. Private museums can add greatly to the cultural life of a community, giving a platform to emerging artists, supplying educational programmes and revitalising declining or neglected regions. But their relationship with public institutions can also be problematic. Should private museums step in to fill a gap left by declining public investment in culture, and what are the implications for society and the arts? At a time of crisis in the museums sector, this book is an essential and thought-provoking read.

An incisive survey from bestselling art-market commentator Georgina Adam of the changing landscape of art collecting as a younger generation of collectors disrupts the status quo. Drawing on new interviews with collectors and art-market specialists internationally, Adam examines how changes in collecting trends are being driven by generational shifts in the sources of wealth, as well as the changing tastes, different motivations and new modes of acquiring art of Millennial and Gen Z collectors compared to older generations. What does all this mean for the future of art collecting and of the art market?This is the first book to focus on the tastes and buying patterns of a new group of dynamic and Influential collectors, most of them still under 50, who are shaping the art market today. This group is younger than previous generations of collectors, with much of their wealth being self-made. Many of them will also benefit in the coming decades from the Great Wealth Transfer, which could see in the region of $72 trillion pass to Gen Z and Millennials. Their art purchases may well be conducted online, via channels which cut out the traditional art-market institutions. They are also more likely than previous generations to be based outside the traditional art centres of the US and EU, with China and the Middle East both seeing a growth in young collectors. These trends are likely to have a profound impact on the ways in which art is bought and sold, as Georgina Adam describes with clarity and insight.