Art Scoping

Episode 53: Nina Del Rio

Maxwell L. Anderson

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0:00 | 28:05

We check in with Nina Del Rio, Vice Chairman, Americas, at Sotheby’s, for an inside look at how the art market performed during the past year. She concurs with recent assessments of a drop in market volume, but contends that the bottom line wasn’t as affected as all might assume. We delve into how objects make their way into private sales versus auctions, a farewell to printed auction catalogues, a surprising prediction about the future of glamorous in-person evening sales, the impact of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) in the art market, museums’ reassessments about mission affecting their participation in the market, and how AAMD’s loosened deaccessioning guidelines has revealed a deep divide among museum leaders regarding the disposition of funds realized from art sales. She also notes an increasing appetite among private collectors to be the stewards of their own holdings--or to insist on restrictions prohibiting deaccessioning.