According to the consulting firm Arts Economics, sales of global fine-art reached a huge $63.8 billion in 2015. Today, much of that is driven by art fairs, which attract the wealthy buyers who travel around the world from market to market. And those buyers' movements are increasingly influenced by 38-year-old Northern Ireland-born Victoria Siddall. As director of Frieze, the former Christie's employee, now based in London, is developing the London art fair into an established global brand. Frieze New York was launched in 2012 (the US market accounts for 43 per cent of art sales; the next biggest, UK and China, are both hovering around the 20 per cent mark) as was Frieze Masters, in London, which focuses on the antiquities end of the market.
Frieze Academy, a series of talks, courses and symposiums, was launched in January 2016 and, in April, the company signed a deal with management giant WME-IMG, an agency that is more used to managing global sports events such as the Rugby World Cup and Beijing Olympics. WME-IMG also has experience in digital - online sales and technologies such as virtual reality are potential growth areas for art, and Siddall appears ideally placed to capitalise on them.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
