Corrupt Art Market

The corruption of U.S. financial markets, whose CEOs habitually buy up expensive art, is mirrored by an unregulated art market where it is difficult to tell between hoax and truth. Whether they are photographic negatives of Ansel Adams supposedly bought ten years ago at a garage sale or the newly-found plaster molds of Edgar Degas, who was never thought to have made such molds, the art market is vulnerable to its own brand of charlatan. Currently, there exist no federal regulatory industry in the art market, but it might be something worth considering, says William D. Cohan at the Times’ Opinionator blog: “Even if buying art is a rich man’s sport, there is still a need for some serious introspection among those who buy and sell art about putting an end to the questionable behavior of some dealers.”