Alain Servais on cleaning up the art market

ALAIN SERVAIS is the kind of collector who finds himself in Art Basel Miami, peeing in a stall in with Leonardo DiCaprio to his right and “that guy in Spider-Man,” meaning DiCaprio’s buddy Tobey Maguire, to his left. The Brussels-based art aficionado, who self-deprecatingly called himself a “stupid trader,” is active on Twitter and unafraid of speaking of his mind. In a talk titled “Art + Money — A Dangerous Liaison?” which was part of Art Stage Singapore’s Southeast Asia Forum, Mr. Servais made a case for professionalizing the art market, and offered a couple of his own suggestions (forming a non-selling artists agency is one of them). Below are excerpts — edited for length and clarity — from the panel.:

“We’re coming from a club mentality. The rules are different now. Where relationships and reputations were important before, there are people today who are willing to destroy their reputation for $600,000. The art market is the Wild West. There are no rules, no ethics. This was fine when it was a club… If we want to stabilize the art market, we should clean it up. New buyers can be ripped off by the wrong advisers, the wrong gallerists. We need to get the ball rolling, and perhaps it’s the collectors who should start it.”

“How is it that you can buy a work of art at a fair for $30,000 by just shaking hands, without signing anything? You know it, I know it: 10% of transactions are never achieved because a buyer doesn’t pay. This kind of thing can kill a gallery. We should have best practices.”

“There is a massive conflict of interest between galleries and artists now. We need to have contracts. Galleries talk about emotional relationships, about how artists are their family. My answer is this: Are you married? Did you have to sign a contract? Why did you sign a marriage contract if it is about love anyway? Why sign a contract for a marriage and not sign one for a gallery? It’s a ridiculous excuse. Practices that worked 20 years ago, don’t work anymore now. When there is no trust, it’s bad for everyone. We need to improve the infrastructure of the art market. We need stability and transparency.”

“The biggest competitor of the gallery system is the auction. Auction houses are getting bigger and galleries say, ‘what do you want me to do?’ That’s like sticking your head in the sand. Auction houses should behave and respect the gallery system because the gallery system is essential. Galleries need a strong voice. Maybe there should be a ‘Gallery Association of the World’ telling the auction houses to stop selling art that is less than three years old.”

“Sometimes I see with horror the artist being described a ‘creative entrepreneur.’ Because it is true, there are artists who have become businessmen: Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor, Anselm Kiefer, Jeff Koons. How do I preserve the artist who is just a good artist and not a ‘creative entrepreneur?’ I believe that there should be a new actor: the non-selling artists agency, which manages better the relationship between artists and galleries. The appearance of this new actor is a consequence of the development of the market, and should make the market safer and more ethical.”