One of America's leading philanthropists in the arts (and other causes) died recently: Aggie (Agnes) Gund. She did so much to support New York’s MoMA during their 50+ year relationship, where she was president during the museum's major venture in doubling its exhibition space, and was pivotal in expanding the museum’s contemporary collections.

It got us thinking about the current state of affairs for museums—particularly at a time when the pressure is on to "quit doing DEI".

Major renovations, sometimes underway for decades, have recently or are soon to be opened—The Frick in NYC, LACMA in LA, and the brand new Guggenheim Abu Dhabi all come to mind, as well as the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. All of these have come to fruition through a mix of private and public money, and never has the landscape looked better in the West and Middle East...whereas China seems to be going the other direction with multiple large scale museums becoming ghost museums.

What will the next 20 years look like? The topic of the moment is definitely the upcoming great wealth transfer, but it won't be enough—we need to think about how to reach new audiences and keep, dare we say, a progressive voice on cultural thinking.

The approximate number of “small galleries” that have closed in South Korea in the past four years, according to professor Sanghoon Kim of Seoul National University.

The cull thinned the nation’s population of scrappy exhibiting dealers to around 560, he told Bloomberg, adding that it seems as if many of the survivors have tilted their programs further toward domestic artists with markets pegged to the Korean won. The move would make sense: the won has been battered in international currency markets ever since political turmoil engulfed the nation’s presidency and legislature in late 2024, making art denominated in anything else vastly more expensive to Korean collectors. (Artists’ works are usually priced in the currency of their home country, no matter where their dealer is offering them.)

It’s easy to frame the attrition of one country’s small galleries as more evidence of a slow-motion art market apocalypse. But consider the flip side. South Korea, a nation of around 52 million people, still supports roughly one small commercial gallery per 100,000 residents, to say nothing of the larger dealers, institutions, auction houses, fairs, and professional associations that continue operating there, too. Kim also projects that, even after the contraction, the nation’s gallery and auction sectors combine to turn over around 500 million won ($361.5 million) worth of art annually—more than all but a handful of other countries worldwide.

The broader context positions South Korea as a microcosm of a global art industry being right-sized after years, if not decades, of expectations about continuous expansion. More tough adjustments will be needed to stabilize it. Just don’t confuse the growing pains for a death knell.

—Tim Schneider / The Gray Market

Victoria from Connecticut ASKed: How can I avoid scams or fraud in the art market? What "red flags" should I look out for?

No Reserve: Here's a few of the big ones:

1) Our own arrogance: Well as every victim first thought: "wouldn't happen to me, I'm too smart."

2) Ask yourself, why am I being offered something (to help sell) by a stranger? If someone is offering us a super hush hush Van Gogh, we question why they haven't taken it to top secondary market dealers like Acquavella or Christie's—because we’ve sold soo many (like, none).

3) Provenance including conservation reports, in which everyone listed is dead.

4) Fake invoices from hackers. Check the email addresses, and verify all payments by phone, but only with someone you know—impersonating is easy if you call and just ask for Matthew.

5) Hang up the phone if you're told there's a "letter of intent" to buy it. No-one who actually buys art from reputable dealers uses one. However, they do want proper contracts, perhaps escrow and the ability to control when and how the art is released until payment clears.

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