The artist–art dealer relationship as a marketing channel

•This article studies the relationship between the artist and the art dealer.•The artist and the dealer are interpreted as being the two members of a marketing channel.•Uncoordinated effort levels are shown to result in an inefficient outcome.•The efficiency of different agreements is studied with specific reference to the visual arts.

This article studies the relationship between the artist and the art dealer, interpreted as being the two members of a “marketing channel”, as defined by industrial organization and marketing science literature. The result for both parties depends on the individual effort that each of them puts in; uncoordinated effort levels are shown to result in an inefficient outcome. Efficiency, subject to different institutional settings and agreements, is studied here with specific reference to the visual arts. The results may easily apply to the stage of creation of a number of different artistic goods. Possible ways to reach efficient outcomes in marketing channels in artistic fields are suggested and discussed.