ArtRank and the Flippers: Apocalypse now?

Despite its professed love for perversion, the art world, it would seem, is quick to moralize when it comes to the rules of buying and selling the objects in which it trades. According to the prevailing order, one must not only have sufficient funds, but first be socialized according to an established routine of openings and other rituals, and in these contexts, demonstrate one’s sincere non-mercenary intent before gaining access to the elite circles of the art market. Enter the flippers, the aggregators, and the advisors, among other intermediary agents, who are perceived as denaturing this system. As economic sociologist Olav Velthuis argues here, however, the impact of this activity is due not to the form of these new transactions (as indeed, back room deals have always taken place everywhere), but in their blatant visibility.