Given the rapid churn of the art market, up-to-date, global data are arguably critical to the database’s ongoing relevance. “Information can change,” Van de Weghe says, “people who were buying art 20 years ago are tapped out.”
This doesn’t escape Baer, who says he plans to “lean hard” into covering the Asian art market, as well as train people in London and New York to help him add 500 pieces of new information to the database every year.
In the meantime, Baer says he’s focused on the roughly 2,000 to 3,000 people around the world he considers obvious subscribers.
“We’ll see how many of these people I can reach,” he says. “That’s a bet I made by spending money to build this and putting my reputation on the line.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.