| Abstract: |
The value of a painting is influenced above all by the artist who created it
and his reputation. Painters nowadays are easy to identify and are used to
signing their artworks. But what about those whose names have not survived the
test of time? This paper focuses on a particular subset of anonymous artists
labelled with socalled provisional names (“Master of …”). After considering
the origins and reception of the practice of creating names for unrecorded
artists, we empirically investigate the market behavior of this niche segment.
Based on comparative price indexes and hedonic regressions, we show that
masters with provisional names have not only become autonomous brand names
that are highly valued by the art market; they also outperformed named artists
between 1955 and 2015. In the second phase, we analyze the provisional-name
linked elements valued by the market. We find that art market participants pay
attention to the creator of the provisional name, its long-term recognition
and market visibility, and the typology of the names. |