Let’s talk about the silent con: galleries buying their own artists at auctions. It’s happening more than anyone wants to admit. The goal? Inflate prices. Avoid the shame of a ‘no sale’. Keep the illusion of demand alive.
This isn’t market confidence. It’s manipulation.
It props up careers on paper but corrodes everything underneath. Collectors are misled. Artists are fed false hope. And the market gets warped by vanity metrics instead of actual value.
It’s not strategy. It’s a scam. And it’s a crime—morally and sometimes legally. The worst part? The whole system suffers. Serious collectors pull back. Trust erodes. Transparency dies.
If a work doesn’t sell, that’s data. That’s feedback. Hiding it by gaming the system helps no one. This short-term patchwork is costing the ecosystem its credibility.
Stop fixing auctions. Start fixing the art.