Two approaches to study the value of art and culture, and the emergence of a third

Abstract

This paper argues that a third approach to study the value of art and culture is emerging: the valuation approach. The paper, first, outlines the two established approaches to study the value of art. The economics of the arts approach in which economic analysis is used to analyze the arts is the first of those established approaches. The other established approach is the art and commerce approach in which the relative position of the arts in society and in particular its relation to the commercial and industrial world is analyzed. The valuation approach takes elements of these two established approaches, but focuses explicitly on processes of valuation of the arts and cultural goods on markets as well as within bureaucracies, organizations, among experts, peers and other communities. Central to the valuation approach is the notion that the study of market prices is not sufficient to establish the value of cultural goods. Contributors to this emerging approach analyze valuation processes in and outside markets, the norms and conventions used to value the arts, and the role of intermediaries who are able to deal with competing notions and justifications of value.