Thus Der Spiegel today. “Thaddaeus Ropac earns billions with his galleries in Salzburg and Paris, but he doesn’t sell to just anyone,” elaborates the newspaper. “In an interview, the gallerist discusses what he calls ‘unreal’ price developments in the international art market and the need to choose buyers carefully.” Judging by the interview, the Austrian dealer is well connected both in the art world and the world of the rich and famous. “Almost everywhere in the world, “ the interviewer says, “people are worried about the future of the economy and the possibility of a super-recession, but money is pouring into the art business as though there is too much cash in the world. Explain this phenomenon to us.” And Ropac replies:

There is something unreal about it. I have been selling art for thirty years. When I got into the business, Europe was the so-called tastemaker and America was the driving force on the market. That was the map. It was as if Asia, the Arab world, Russia, and South America didn’t exist. That has changed, and most recently it’s been changing at an incredible pace. The world’s third-largest auction house is now based in China, and in a few years it could very well be the largest. Besides, an increasing number of new museums that must be filled are being built. There is hardly a collector who isn’t building his own museum. This is a development of the last ten years.

“Art has become dramatically more expensive,” the interviewer says. “Is it also more valuable than ever before?” And the dealer replies:

It’s more accessible. When I got into the business thirty years ago, the art world was completely elitist. Beuys was known and controversial, because he wanted to blow up the academy in Düsseldorf, at least symbolically. Aside from that, though, artists weren’t known outside a small circle of people. Today they are people who are in the midst of things and have a voice. There is, of course, a negative side effect, a false glamor that’s associated with this.

Even though this hardly “explains” the art market, it surely helps understand it at this juncture. In short, there is much cash slushing around and few safe places to invest it in recessionary times, which is why the rich parvenus from all over the world are flocking to galleries for their share of the crazy stuff on offer. A few artists are benefitting from the craze, but the most crafty among the gallerists are making a killing. They are going global. Ropac appears to be one of them. But what will happen in Asia, the Arab world, Russia, and South America over the coming years is anyone’s guess. The glamor is likely to shift now this way and now that. Staying abreast all the twists and turns in the art market will become an ever-chancier game. Good luck, global art dealers!