The economics of art.

There are many fascinating aspects to the art world, with the machinations behind buying and selling works of art among the most intriguing. The art market as it has evolved over four centuries is the subject of an exhibition organized by the Getty Research Institute and on view at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. The objects on view are drawn from the rich holdings of the Research Library at the institute. The show is entitled The Business of Art: Evidence from the Art Market, and it is on view from March 16 through June 13.

Among the papers selected for the exhibition are dealers' stock books, artists' letters, photographs, press clippings, scholars' diaries, inventories of private collections, agents' reports, and early manuals of auction results. These documents date from the sixteenth through the twentieth century.

The exhibition is divided into sections that address the four professions that contribute to establishing the value of a work of art: artist, collector, dealer, and scholar/critic. Historically, many artists set the price for their work, acting simultaneously as dealer, agent, and even critic and collector. Among the examples in the exhibition is a receipt for three paintings signed by Guercino (illustrated on p. 22), which makes clear that he calculated his fee according to the number of figures in a composition and, in the case of this receipt, that he charged a fraction of his going rate for half- and three-quarter length figures. Guido Reni was extremely clever in the way he marketed his work. He would send a painting to one of his patrons along with a letter in which he requested a return gift, not specifying the amount, but indicating that it should reflect the patron's emotional response to the picture.

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The section that treats the role of the collector examines the ...