Josh Baer is the author of the Baer Faxt, which is the art industry newsletter as per Bloomberg News. The author has spent over 25 years making note of the people who have won at the bids and the ones that have tried but could not finally outbid the others.
Says Baer that this piece of information is crucial for an adviser or a consultant and he has recorded the details in his newsletter Baer Faxt. Hereon, the entries have been made into searchable data. According to Bloomberg News, users that intend to access this very database must shell out anything between $200 and $500 per month so that they can get access to details of about 10,000 auction lots that have taken place in the past. The user will be able to access information related to 5,700 sales, the details of the buyers being listed, and as many as 6,100 entries that comprise underbidders. The underbidders are the ones that wanted to bid or win but failed to get it.
The main aim of the effort is to allow professionals and serious collectors to make use of the important piece of information in an organized manner.
As a powerful tool
By making a “quarter-century of records” into digital records, Baer has been able to develop a powerful tool for sorting data that once was exclusive related to the auction houses, advisers, and dealers.
And suddenly when someone just by paying $200 gets access to the information of the owner or his representative of some famous artwork is unparallel. Similarly, by finding the database of the underbidders, one can find out who was interested at one point in time but was not able to lay their hands on the piece of artwork and whether they would still be interested in owning the same, thereby fostering sales opportunity.
The use of the database can be further understood with the help of an instance. If someone is interested in buying artwork by Rachel Whiteread, the user will be able to find out the participants in her secondary market. In case an adviser or a dealer is investing in many artworks of Whitereads, it could be a vital source of information because it could indicate they have much other work by Whiteread from among which the user can select, says Bloomberg News.
It is also possible to remove the intermediary and contact the private collector directly to get hold of the piece of artwork.
This is a database that has been fact-checked by reviews from peers. Also checked by Bloomberg, it checked the database by contacting many advisers and dealers and they all have confirmed the entries for the same.
Not only that each entry has been personally verified by Baer himself and here lies the strength of the database. However, there has been thinning of related data between 2018 and 2019 due to the pandemic. It is important to have an up to date global data which is crucial to the growing relevance of the database.
According to Bloomberg News, Baer says that he plans to cover the Asian market and train people in New York and London so that they can help him add more than 500 pieces of fresh information to the database annually. However, he also remains focused on the 2000 to 3000 subscribers from across the globe.
