Historic art exhibitions and modern - day auction results

This paper uses historic art exhibitions in order to investigate the impact of the contemporary success of artistic careers on today׳s auction prices of modern paintings. That is, if an artist׳s work was displayed at a historic art exhibition in a given year, paintings dated from this year fetch higher prices at auction today. This can be attributed to two effects: artists who participated in such shows were already acknowledged as superstars contemporaneously and participants in art exhibitions benefited from a longer-lasting career boost as reflected by positive mark-ups on paintings made in the years following a show. For both channels, participation in historic art exhibitions is a strong quality signal for today׳s art buyers. This study is based on a global sample of 273 'superstars' of modern art born between 1800 and 1945, 34,141 auction results of paintings and participation in important historic art exhibitions.