Journal of Cultural Economics, Special Issue: The “History of Market for Art and Cultural Goods”.

Guest Editors:
Anne-Sophie V. Radermecker (Université libre de Bruxelles, Department of History, Arts and Archaeology) and Elena Stepanova (European Commission, Joint Research Centre)

The Journal of Cultural Economics, with the support of the Association for Cultural Economics International (ACEI) and Springer, is pleased to announce a Call for Papers for a Special Issue on the “History of Market for Art and Cultural Goods”. A wide literature on pre-modern and modern markets for visual arts, literature, music and other art forms has been developed in the last decades, combined with greater archival data availability, and has attracted the attention of multiple disciplines. This issue is aimed at expanding research in this field through the perspective of economic history and cultural economics, using empirical data and advanced statistical analyses.

The economic history of markets for visual arts, as well as reproducible and non-reproducible cultural goods and collectibles, encompasses the empirical analysis of these markets from the ancient world through the Middle Ages, the Early Modern period, and the 19th and 20th centuries - each era shaped by its own paradigms of production, distribution, and consumption. These categories of artworks and cultural goods include not only traditional fine arts (i.e., painting, graphic arts, sculpture), but also photographs, prints, decorative arts, antiques, crafts, mineralia, memorabilia, and, more broadly, goods from the book, music, and fashion industries, among others. This issue aims to expand research in this field from the perspective of economic history and cultural economics, using a more comprehensive definition of the art markets that embraces artistic, cultural and creative goods long opposed as ‘major’ versus ‘minor.’ The geographical scope also extends beyond Western art markets to include Latin American, African, Chinese, Indian, Middle Eastern, and other markets, including regional and local marketplaces. We are particularly interested in studies of cross-border flows of cultural property (e.g., colonial-era looting and post-colonial restitution, illicit trafficking in cultural property), as well as patterns of artists’ careers, migration and mobility.

Possible topics:
- Economic history of art markets worldwide
- Markets for painting, sculpture and niche collectible markets
- Markets for literature and publishing (printing presses, book trade), and music (sheet-music markets, patronage/competition for composers, concert and recording industries)
- Economic history of architecture
- Expertise, art forgeries, copies, authentication and attribution issues
- Interactions between the commercial and institutional fields
- Global and postcolonial art markets (transnational trade, emerging national markets, effects of empire and decolonization)
- Cultural heritage and provenance research (including theft/smuggling, restitution, museums’ acquisition policy and deaccessioning)
...

The main macro and micro economic questions we are interested in range, among others, from market performance analyses (e.g., price indices), valuation and price formation mechanisms, market structure and segmentation, the effects of exogenous treatments on markets to art market intermediaries’ business models, supply and sales strategies (e.g., commission contracts, product differentiation, stock management), artists’ career management (e.g., intellectual property rights, branding, mobility), urban economics (e.g., cluster analysis), inter- or transnational commercial network analysis, and art consumption practices. Additionally, we welcome advanced methodological papers that aim to improve the management and processing of historical art market data, or challenge traditional empirical methods

Submission:
Please follow this link and instructions to submit the paper: https://link-springer-com.ezproxy.ulb.ac.be/journal/10824/updates/27818466
You will be guided through the regular submission process of the Journal of Cultural Economics by selecting the article type “S.I.: History of Market for Art and Cultural Goods.”

The deadline for submission is January 1, 2027.

Early submissions will undergo an accelerated review process by the Guest Editors.
Papers that do not fit the broad agenda or fail to meet the quality standards expected for this issue may be desk rejected.