Art Expert Magnus Resch Explains Why Art and NFT Markets Aren’t That Different

Magnus Resch has spent many years decoding the opaque art market for the general public and scholars, turning a complicated social dance into a matter of quantifiable clarity with books like Art gallery management and How to become a successful artist.

Resch has a particularly unromantic view of how art works, as one would expect of an economist, entrepreneur, and Yale lecturer. This data-centric approach makes him an ideal person to navigate the messy world of NFTs. Her new book, co-authored with Tam Gryn, How to Create and Sell NFTs – A Guide for All Artistscame out yesterday.

In an interview with ART news During NFT.NYC, Resch makes insightful comments on the similarity of art and NFT markets, why NFTs will change the way galleries operate, and even makes a prediction on what we can expect from the volatile art market. NFT over the next 18 years. month.

ARTnews: What initially attracted you to the art market?

Magnus Resch: In order to finance my studies, when I was in my twenties, I started selling art, which made me wonder why some galleries were successful and others weren’t. This question became the focus of my doctoral thesis.

ARTnews: And what did you find?

ARTnews: What are the main reasons why art world insiders are reluctant to enter this market? Aesthetic?

Resch: It’s never a discussion about aesthetics. There are several reasons why I think they are reluctant. First, they are discouraged because all of a sudden, works by artists they’ve never heard of before are selling for millions of dollars. Secondly, it is very difficult to enter: wallets, Metamask, blockchain, these words alone can scare people. And then thirdly, the art world has historically always been slow to adapt to new things. We are happy with the status quo. Let’s continue with this degree of control.

ARTnews: Do you think the art world can afford to ignore NFTs?

Resch: The biggest problem in the art market is that we have too many visitors and too few buyers, the number of buyers is decreasing. And why is that? Because buyers are afraid to enter the art world. It’s too elitist, it’s not open to first-time buyers. If you can’t convince recruits [to join] in the art world, we will all fail. But NFTs can help solve this problem. Suddenly there are people buying because they had full price transparency and automatic access.

ARTnews: What is the impact for artists?

Resch: What artists realize is that they can succeed without galleries, 50/50 is no longer enough. Artists can act as true entrepreneurs, finding and creating their own customers, their own distribution channels. We’ve seen a lot of artists who weren’t making any money three years ago are now very wealthy because they’ve taken their own career into their own hands, rather than relying on someone else. Jen Stark is a good example.

ARTnews: But do artists really want to have this role? And despite all the scolding galleries get for dodging buyers and playing games, isn’t this ultimately in the service of placing artists in top collections and, hopefully, institutions?

ARTnews: Do you have any predictions on the evolution of the NFT market in the future?

Resch: Yes. We will see another short peak and then a downturn. In 18 months from today, the market will be stabilized.

ARTnews: Good to know.