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- 🔥 AI, Artnet, Artsy + Chico da Silva
HEY Y’ALL!
Thanks for all the great feedback on the Hayley Axelrad piece I shared last day!
🔥 ICYMI – Catchs from the Last Weeks:
Today we have a Chico da Silva oil that proves dragons still fly. Priced clean, painted solo, and miles away from the assistant drama. Meanwhile, Beowolff is assembling a frankenstack empire.
-Today’s Catch-
Chico da Silva
Chico da Silva, Dragao, 1979
💭 My 2 Cents: If you’re gonna spend five figures on a mythical beast, at least make it one that breathes fire and resale potential. This 1979 Dragão isn’t one of Chico da Silva’s peak-era gouaches (those went to Venice), but it’s a solid oil on canvas with that dense patterning and fluorescent fantasy vibe collectors love. It's also one of the few late-70s pieces painted solo, after he got clean and ditched the workshop crew—and yes, that matters when early-70s output is full of ghost hands.
🔑 Key Numbers: £9,750 for a signed oil at 43x64 cm = £3.54/cm². That’s half the density pricing of comparable '66 Masonites sold in New York. Oil works are rarer in Chico’s catalog (maybe 10–15% of the known pieces). Art Basel Paris 2024 saw a mid-size gouache move for $125,000 through Kordansky’s booth. Meanwhile, only 1 out of his last 10 public sales cleared above estimate. In other words: liquidity’s thin, and the floor’s still sticky.
🧠 Why It’s a Smart Pick: You're not getting museum-grade here, but you are getting a cleanly priced, high-intensity piece with solid provenance and no assistant drama. If you want Chico exposure before another Pinacoteca wave hits the West, this is a lean entry point. Just don’t wait for everyone else to figure out oil matters.
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-In a Minute-
🔥 Words I Like: frankenstack, scoreboard, déjà-vu
Data-Gatekeeper Coup
I’ve been watching the art market spin its wheels for years now. Every six months, someone new arrives promising revolution. In 2020, we had blockchain: every pitch deck suddenly promised transparency and decentralization. Today, apparently, AI’s the magical ingredient that’ll finally “make art accessible to everyone.”
Forgive my cynicism, but come on.
The news this week is Beowolff Capital scooping both Artnet and Artsy into one freshly minted data empire. They’re not even hiding the playbook anymore. First, they grab a 65% controlling stake in Artnet, announce they’re delisting it (say goodbye to public scrutiny), and then casually mention they’ve taken majority control of Artsy. Convenient, isn’t it?
This “ecosystem of shared AI tools” feels less visionary and more Frankenstein’s monster. You’ve got Artnet’s ancient subscription paywall database bolted onto Artsy’s messy listings marketplace. Two entirely different data stacks. Two entirely different cultures. Anyone who’s ever run a startup knows exactly how this ends: a multi-year integration nightmare, feature freezes, layoffs, and an overpriced “platform relaunch” sometime in the distant future.
And for what? Owning the scoreboard. Controlling the pricing spigot. That’s the entire game here. Beowolff doesn’t need to buy paintings—he’s buying leverage. But we’ve seen this movie already. Someone consolidates data, claims it’s for the greater good, then quietly tightens the paywalls and restricts access.
Honestly, part of me admires the sheer audacity. But another part just sees déjà-vu. Every startup claims they’ll “democratize art.” Every platform swears AI (or blockchain, or whatever buzzword’s next) is the silver bullet. As a founder myself, I’ve watched this pattern repeat ad nauseam.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Beowolff’s data Frankenstein will suddenly start dancing gracefully. But until proven otherwise, I’ll keep my independent sources of data running and trust my own scoreboard, thanks.
P.S. At least we’re getting better marketing… AI sounds way cooler than blockchain ever did.
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-Alvaro (@theartmarketguy)
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