ECON 10 — Economics of Fine Art
Quarter: Fall
Instructor(s): David G. Stork
Date(s): Sep 28—Oct 26
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Mondays
Class Meeting Time: 5:30—7:20 pm (PT)
Tuition: $385
Refund Deadline: Sep 30
Unit(s): 1
Status: Registration opens Aug 17, 8:30 am (PT)
The fine art market is a fascinating $1.7 trillion industry where economics, culture, and perception intersect in unusual ways. Prices are often secretive, regulation is limited, and questions of authenticity and cultural prestige shape value. This course explores the economics of fine art through the interconnected worlds of galleries, museums, auctions, and collectors. We’ll examine how attribution, institutional prestige, and collector behavior shape artistic reputation while also considering art as an investment class and source of civic and cultural influence. Topics include forgery, art crime, and money laundering, as well as rapidly evolving markets for digital art, NFTs, and AI-generated works. We’ll also examine the influence of major museums and the so-called “Bilbao Effect,” in which cultural institutions can reshape cities and regional economies. Through case studies ranging from forged paintings to multimillion-dollar contemporary sales, the course reveals how markets built on culture, status, scarcity, and belief operate unlike almost any other sector of the global economy.
No background in art or economics is required.
DAVID G. STORK
Scientist and Author
David G. Stork has held faculty positions in physics, mathematics, electrical engineering, computer science, statistics, neuroscience, psychology, and art and art history at Wellesley, Swarthmore, Clark University, Boston University, Stanford, and the Technical University of Vienna. He received a PhD in physics from the University of Maryland. He is widely considered the founder of the field of computer image analysis in the study of fine art. Textbooks for this course:
(Required) Amy Whitaker, Economics of Visual Art (ISBN 978-1108704977)