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The vast collection of auction catalogues dates back to Christie's very first sale in 1766 and has been an invaluable resource for dealers and academics
Lockdown sales slump pushes galleries, fairs, and auction houses towards non-traditional territory: the internet. For art expert Dirk Boll, the art market is on the verge of a "turning point." He told DW that the COVID-19 crisis had had a "catalytic effect" in transforming the tradition-bound industry, with digitalization moving "at turbo speed." Boll is an art historian and one of four presidents, who with managing director Guillaume Cerutti, head the London auction house Christie's. Boll recently published a book in German on economic crises and new art markets, in which he analysed the impact of recent economic crises on the art market. With a view of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, his book is titled,
Dirk Boll Photo: Michael Kindermann It was while helping Christie’s adapt its business to the pandemic era that Dirk Boll started writing down his thoughts on the crisis in the evening. Now Boll, the auction house's president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, has amalgamated those thoughts into a new book, published in German with a title that translates into English as What’s Different This Time? Economic Crises and New Art Markets. We asked him to explain what distinguishes the coronavirus crisis from the previous art market crises that have struck about once a decade over the past 30 years—in 1990, 2001, and after the financial crisis in 2009.