Determinants of sales and price at auction for three Australian Indigenous artists: to pool or not to pool?

Lisa Farrell; Jane M. Fry; Tim R.L. Fry

doi:10.1007/s10824-017-9314-0

Determinants of sales and price at auction for three Australian Indigenous artists: to pool or not to pool?

Lisa Farrell
, Jane M. Fry
, Tim R.L. Fry

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Albert Namatjira (1902–1959), Emily Kame Kngwarreye (c1910–1996) and Rover (Julama) Thomas (c1926–1998) are three of Australia’s best-known Indigenous artists. Each is known for one style of painting—Namatjira for watercolor on paper, Kngwarreye for acrylic (synthetic polymer) on canvas and Thomas for natural earth pigments on canvas. We estimate a sample selectivity model using data from the Australian Art Sales Digest to study the determinants of sales and the hammer price of artworks offered at auction from these artists. The results show that pre-sale information on the artwork and auction effects are significant and that the three artists studied are very different from each other. Thus, data should not be pooled when estimating these models.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	507-520
Number of pages	14
Journal	Journal of Cultural Economics
Volume	42
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10824-017-9314-0
Publication status	Published - 1 Aug 2018

Keywords

Auction prices
Indigenous artwork
Pooled data
Selectivity correction

Access to Document

10.1007/s10824-017-9314-0

Cite this

@article{43df4cf72c944201a084d37665aed712,

title = "Determinants of sales and price at auction for three Australian Indigenous artists: to pool or not to pool?",

abstract = "Albert Namatjira (1902{\textendash}1959), Emily Kame Kngwarreye (c1910{\textendash}1996) and Rover (Julama) Thomas (c1926{\textendash}1998) are three of Australia{\textquoteright}s best-known Indigenous artists. Each is known for one style of painting{\textemdash}Namatjira for watercolor on paper, Kngwarreye for acrylic (synthetic polymer) on canvas and Thomas for natural earth pigments on canvas. We estimate a sample selectivity model using data from the Australian Art Sales Digest to study the determinants of sales and the hammer price of artworks offered at auction from these artists. The results show that pre-sale information on the artwork and auction effects are significant and that the three artists studied are very different from each other. Thus, data should not be pooled when estimating these models.",

keywords = "Auction prices, Indigenous artwork, Pooled data, Selectivity correction",

author = "Lisa Farrell and Fry, \{Jane M.\} and Fry, \{Tim R.L.\}",

note = "Funding Information: We wish to acknowledge Bronwyn Coate for helpful discussions on the context of Indigenous art in Australia. We are grateful to seminar participants at RMIT University and Monash University for their comments on earlier versions of this paper. Finally, we would like to thank the Australian Art Sales Digest for supplying the data used in this paper and note that responsibility for the information and views set out in this paper lies entirely with the authors. This work is part of a research project on {\textquotedblleft}Indigenous art at auction{\textquotedblright} which has been supported by an RMIT University internal research grant awarded to Tim R.L. Fry. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. Funding Information: Funding This work is part of a research project on {\textquoteleft}{\textquoteleft}Indigenous art at auction{\textquoteright}{\textquoteright} which has been supported by an RMIT University internal research grant awarded to Tim R.L. Fry. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2017, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.",

year = "2018",

month = aug,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1007/s10824-017-9314-0",

language = "English",

volume = "42",

pages = "507--520",

journal = "Journal of Cultural Economics",

issn = "0885-2545",

publisher = "Springer Nature ",

number = "3",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Determinants of sales and price at auction for three Australian Indigenous artists

T2 - to pool or not to pool?

AU - Farrell, Lisa

AU - Fry, Jane M.

AU - Fry, Tim R.L.

N1 - Funding Information: We wish to acknowledge Bronwyn Coate for helpful discussions on the context of Indigenous art in Australia. We are grateful to seminar participants at RMIT University and Monash University for their comments on earlier versions of this paper. Finally, we would like to thank the Australian Art Sales Digest for supplying the data used in this paper and note that responsibility for the information and views set out in this paper lies entirely with the authors. This work is part of a research project on “Indigenous art at auction” which has been supported by an RMIT University internal research grant awarded to Tim R.L. Fry. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. Funding Information: Funding This work is part of a research project on ‘‘Indigenous art at auction’’ which has been supported by an RMIT University internal research grant awarded to Tim R.L. Fry. Publisher Copyright: © 2017, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

PY - 2018/8/1

Y1 - 2018/8/1

N2 - Albert Namatjira (1902–1959), Emily Kame Kngwarreye (c1910–1996) and Rover (Julama) Thomas (c1926–1998) are three of Australia’s best-known Indigenous artists. Each is known for one style of painting—Namatjira for watercolor on paper, Kngwarreye for acrylic (synthetic polymer) on canvas and Thomas for natural earth pigments on canvas. We estimate a sample selectivity model using data from the Australian Art Sales Digest to study the determinants of sales and the hammer price of artworks offered at auction from these artists. The results show that pre-sale information on the artwork and auction effects are significant and that the three artists studied are very different from each other. Thus, data should not be pooled when estimating these models.

AB - Albert Namatjira (1902–1959), Emily Kame Kngwarreye (c1910–1996) and Rover (Julama) Thomas (c1926–1998) are three of Australia’s best-known Indigenous artists. Each is known for one style of painting—Namatjira for watercolor on paper, Kngwarreye for acrylic (synthetic polymer) on canvas and Thomas for natural earth pigments on canvas. We estimate a sample selectivity model using data from the Australian Art Sales Digest to study the determinants of sales and the hammer price of artworks offered at auction from these artists. The results show that pre-sale information on the artwork and auction effects are significant and that the three artists studied are very different from each other. Thus, data should not be pooled when estimating these models.

KW - Auction prices

KW - Indigenous artwork

KW - Pooled data

KW - Selectivity correction

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85033367321

U2 - 10.1007/s10824-017-9314-0

DO - 10.1007/s10824-017-9314-0

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85033367321

SN - 0885-2545

VL - 42

SP - 507

EP - 520

JO - Journal of Cultural Economics

JF - Journal of Cultural Economics

IS - 3

ER -

Determinants of sales and price at auction for three Australian Indigenous artists: to pool or not to pool?

Abstract

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this