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Contemporary (avant-garde) gallery Traditional gallery
The contrast between primary and secondary art selling is also very interesting. Primary sales are more respectable than secondary, and the art is expected to sell itself in a sort of waiting game whereas secondary employs a much more active style of marketing and selling. Pricing has become a ranking device for artist, and the economic value of a work is very dependent on cultural and social beliefs and interactions. Dealers seem not only interested in the monetary side (although many all together deny any interest in it at all), but also in shaping the history of art by supporting famous artists and their work and in turn gaining a long-lasting reputation and renown for themselves (like the patrons of Renaissance art commissions).
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