Australian and New Zealand Art Sales Digest: An Auction Database
The Australian Cultural Data Engine are delighted to host two undergraduate student interns from the Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Melbourne: Ting Ki Chang and Tanay Khandelwal.
In the blog post below, Ting presents a brief investigation and ‘data dive’ into the Australian And New Zealand Art Sales Digest, as a comparable source of cultural data to the key databases that we are working with on our project. Stay tuned for more insights and research from Ting and Tanay as they complete their internships!
By Ting Ki Chang
Australian and New Zealand Art Sales Digest is an online site hosted by John Furphy Pty. Ltd., who is a life member of the Australian Antique and Art Dealers Association. The website provides art market information for Australian and New Zealand, which includes ongoing auctions, previous auction results dating back to 1969, market analysis, news, and reviews.
In addition to the market and auction data, this database contains directories of artists and commercial galleries. There are brief descriptions about the artists’ lives, gallery information of their artwork events, and auction records (e.g., places of sold artworks and hammer prices). Therefore, although the Australian and New Zealand Art Sales Digest is an auction information website, its content management system somewhat resembles a biographical database, allowing users to understand artists’ experience and artworks over time.
The users of this online digest are predominantly collectors of art, especially investors. Those seeking to buy art on the secondary market for potential investment value would find great value in the collection’s data.
Not only are they able to acquire information about auction statistics in trading contexts, but they can also gather and synthesize information (and opinions) from a range of perspectives across the artistic landscape. For example, the website contains updated reviews and news for relevant auctions and art fairs, which is primarily designed for the collectors. Users of the site can even request pre-purchase reports on artworks they are considering buying, getting estimate prices and market analysis. Artists and researchers are also likely users of the database. Artists can request a valuation report to recognize the market value of their artworks while researchers can customize data according to their requirements.
In terms of the structure of data, it is mainly presented as text or tables. The description of artists and their artworks are displayed as textual content whereas the information about auctions is organized in tables. Even if some of the data are stored as text, the website is organized neatly with titles, which is a handy structure for web scrapping.
Containing data about Australian and New Zealand artists’ artwork auctions, this database allows us to understand the relative market value of the range of artworks and the places they have been displayed or sold, revealing specific market values at different times, historical influences, or spatial networks of the artists included. For instance, market values at different times can be representative of a wide range of socio-economic or political factors including recessions, changes of government, investment in the arts and cultural industries and international influences. Making use of the auction records, researchers can analyze the value of a specific type of art for specific years.
Highest Prices listing
Given the locations of galleries displaying artworks, the Australian Cultural Data Engine has the potential to visualize the data in map form (e.g., Time-Layered Cultural Map), observing and analyzing the growth of artists in various locations over time. Finally, with the historical records, it is also feasible to map a specific (or meaningful) artwork and realize the changes of its ownership from country to country.