As there are secondary markets in the trade of goods or wares, there is a secondary market in the trade of art. The great difference is that art doesn’t depreciate with age, even if subject to wear, and that prices on the secondary art market aren’t determined by singular usability but by their universal desirability. What we understand by a primary and a secondary market in the art trade is important for our appreciation of the monetary value of a work of art. When an artwork comes to the market for the first time at a gallery or any other art exhibition we speak about the primary market. This is the moment when the price for the artwork is established for the first time. The artist, or the gallery owner / dealer in conjunction with the artist, establish a selling price based on art market indicators at the time of presentation. As with any commodity market, the mechanism of “supply and demand” defines this pricing structure.

Once the artwork is purchased on the primary market and the buyer, whether a private collector, an institution or a dealer, decides to resell it, it enters the secondary market. Most items sold through auction houses form part of the secondary market, as the artwork has already been purchased at least once. Secondary market trade means trade in art that is not coming directly from the artist. As in many other trades there is a great amount of speculation in the commerce of art. Some prices asked on the primary market inevitably raise dubitative questions as to longevity. However, such considerations matter little for the primary market’s dynamism; strongly sustained by marketing artefact, sales technique, fashionable trends and not least, by the Vanity Fair that is art collecting.