[Music] The artistic product still maintains its own peculiar function which is obviously aesthetic. And this applies both to more traditional works of art and to those that are a little more modern and dynamic, such as installations, performances, environments and so on. But in addition to this fundamental aspect, artistic production and therefore the work of art demonstrates, within today's system, peculiar characteristics, which go far beyond the aesthetic one.
These functions are obviously very linked to the socio-economic and socio-cultural context of the capitalist society in which we live. These are two fundamental functions: the symbolic one, with strong ideological overtones, and the economic one. As a symbolic asset, the work of art essentially acts as a Status Symbol for owners who want to project a certain image of themselves.
It is therefore normally closely linked to the increase in the prestige of these owners. From an economic point of view, however, the artistic product can be considered from various perspectives. Perhaps as an exchange value or as a refuge asset or as an investment, and very often also as a speculative value.
And from an economic point of view the artistic product is a somewhat particular element. For a classical economist like David Ricardo, but also for Marx himself, the exchange value of a product is given by the value of the labor incorporated into it. So, to put it simply, a work produced in a week should be worth less than a work produced within a month, because more work was done in the case of the latter.
For the work of art, obviously such a discussion would not stand up. In fact, works of art represent a bit of an exception due to their rarity and irreproducibility. In fact, we have a very, very limited offer, which in the case of some works of art can actually come close to being unique.
The value of these rarities and the level of their price is given above all by the degree of desire and purchasing power of the buyers. In fact, according to Marx we could speak of a monopoly price. In fact, it would perhaps be simpler to consider the work of art and therefore its rarity on the basis of the so-called "marginalist theory".
According to this theory, the value of goods increases inversely proportional to their availability on the market. So the fewer goods there are on the market, the more their value increases. To give a practical example, for example, a painting by Leonardo is incredibly rare, both because it is a unique piece and because the author was dead and could no longer produce others.
Precisely in this regard, the collector and professor of corporate law Guido Rossi has defined the art market as a "counter-market". Precisely to mark its exceptionality. However, if we take Leonardo's previous example again, we realize that a problem emerges for a moment.
In fact, if regarding works of ancient art such as those of Leonardo the rarity is evident and therefore there is no need to justify it, the same cannot be said with respect to works of contemporary art, especially by artists who are still in life. So how is it possible for artists who are still alive to reach such high prices? Well here and where the entrepreneurial and marketing strategies that we also talked about in the video on Ruel come into play .
In fact, rarity within the current system of contemporary art is created artificially, through monopolistic and oligopolistic strategies. For this video it seems to me that we have put too much meat on the grill, we will delve into these strategies artificially created by entrepreneurs within the contemporary art market in the next video. Let me know your opinions So that they can also stay below in the comments section and thus help others too.
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