Manufacturing Value: How the Art Market Sells Illusions
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| Bernice Bing, an Asian-American Artist who passed away in 1998 |
In September 2024, an unnamed New York Gallery* made waves with the first New York solo show of Bernice Bing, an Asian-American artist who passed away in 1998. The star lot? Priced at $850,000.
This comes just months after this same New York gallery sold Bernice Bing's 1961 painting Velazquez Family No. II in a group show for around $400,000—a shocking leap considering Ms. Bing had no prior public auction records and her works previously sold for around $30,000.
This raises an essential question:
How do you assess market value when there's no market trail?
The Pattern Behind the Price
Bernice Bing isn't the only artist on this unnamed New York Gallery roster to experience rapid and dramatic revaluation.
Alice Baber: For decades Alice Baber paintings routinely sold at public auctions for under $3,000; Alice Baber's auction record now stands at nearly $700,000 at Sotheby's NY, although recent prices hover around 10% of Baber's world record auction price. That's after a series of Alice Baber paintings suddenly fetched six figure record prices in 2022 and 2023 at John Moran Auctioneers, a third tier California auction firm established in 1969.
Lynne Drexler: Until the Lynne Drexler: The First Decade exhibition in 2022, this now deceased artist had an exceptionally limited auction history. Prior to 2022, only two Lynn Drexler's paintings had ever sold at public auction, and of those, only one crossed the modest threshold of $50,000. The fact that one of Lynn Drexler's artwork could leap from just $1,920 in 2012 to an astonishing $1.5 million in 2022—a nearly 800-fold increase—is, on its face, illogical and concerning.
Yvonne Thomas: Yvonne Thomas, an artist who passed away in 2009, had a public auction record of just a few works, previously selling for about $500; now paintings by Ms. Thomas are suddenly fetching realized auction prices of over $50,000 and beyond; one canvas by Yvonne Thomas achieved $107,100 at Christie's in May, 2022, substantially more than its $30,000 to $50,000 pre-sale estimate.
Ethel Schwabacher: Ethel Schwabacher who passed away in 1984 had virtually no auction history, yet paintings by the late abstract artist are now commanding five and six figure prices, although the pre-sale estimates are substantially less.
If you're wondering how this happens, this unnamed New York Gallery has been quite open: they claim to follow a “conscious formula” that emphasizes selectivity, inventory control, and institutional alignment.
Put another way, this gallery curates the market from the inside out, often before collectors have the chance to evaluate the work’s historical price trends or market depth.
Manufactured Demand or Market Correction?
There’s no denying that many women artists as well as artists of color have been grossly overlooked and unrecognized by the fine art market. Rediscovery is welcome—but when realized public auction prices suddenly skyrocket without a plausible rationale to support the mysterious price spike, serious collectors should carefully examine all the facts. Since many art collectors buy fine art with their ears and not their eyes, it's essential that serious collectors recognize the difference between market demand and market manipulation.
Let’s be clear:
Auction records matter because they generally reflect demand, although for decades many art dealers and gallerists have often supported their roster of represented artists at public auction.
Market depth matters because it tells you if there's a sustainable collector base.
Institutional placements matter, but it doesn't necessary always translate to resale value.
Without these pillars, a six-figure price tag may not represent value—it may represent strategy.
Transparency: Ask to see private sale histories, not just institutional placements.
Auction Activity: If there's no consistent track record, understand you could be operating in a speculative zone.
Resale Strategy: Consider whether there's enough market recognition for resale if you need liquidity and avoid getting hoodwinked because of one or two auction prices.
Timing: Beware of “first wave” pricing when artists are freshly reintroduced. Early hype is generally the most volatile.
In addition to curatorial messaging, this unnamed New York Gallery along with another Texas Gallery is bizarrely referencing Alice Baber's 2022 and 2023 six figure realized auction price spike as a rationale for collector purchase. Buying fine art just because a painting or a few paintings have realized auction prices that have have suddenly increased is highly unusual; generally most legitimate fine art galleries don't tout realized auction price increases in press releases, but these galleries are doing so.
Collectors should separate artistic merit from market mechanics. A great story and a great painting don’t always justify gallery prices that have suddenly skyrocketed by hundreds of thousands of dollars,—especially if the cataclysmic price was achieved virtually "overnight".
Advocacy vs. Asset Inflation
It’s essential to support the overdue recognition of women, BIPOC, and underrepresented artists. That’s not in question. But advocacy shouldn’t be used to justify speculative pricing. Recognition doesn’t automatically equate to market value. Value should be earned over time, with transparency and broader participation—not artificially manufactured overnight.
The Bernice Bing exhibition is undoubtedly a welcome milestone for the artist, but for collectors, it also serves as a cautionary tale: in today’s market, not every spotlight comes with substance. And not every high price reflects lasting market value.
Scarcity by Design: Lynn Drexler and the Mechanics of Market Control
The dramatic market surge surrounding Lynne Drexler reveals how the value of an artist’s work can be engineered, rather than earned through a gradual process of recognition and demand. Ms. Drexler passed away in 1999, leaving behind a vast body of work—hundreds of paintings and works on paper—that remained largely under the radar for decades. This abundance, rather than diluting value, presented a unique opportunity for market savvy fine art dealers who saw dollar signs. By acquiring or controlling access to the Lynn Drexler estate and the bulk of her unsold inventory, these art dealers gained the ability to tightly manage supply, selectively release works, and manufacture a sense of scarcity which has resulted in an enormous windfall.
When the market is essentially monopolized by a small number of stakeholders—particularly in the absence of a long-standing collector base or institutional support—it becomes vulnerable to manipulation. For instance, in Lynn Drexler’s case, the rapid escalation of auction prices, including the headline-grabbing $1.5 million sale at Christie’s in 2022, appears less the result of organic demand and more the outcome of strategic market orchestration. Without a gradual build-up of value through historical sales, critical acclaim and curatorial attention, Lynn Drexler's sudden price leap raises legitimate questions about the authenticity of market demand.
In this context, what has been created around Lynn Drexler is without question not a genuine rediscovery or reevaluation, but rather the result of a fabricated market—a commercial construct designed to benefit those controlling the supply. Collectors would be wise to approach such cases with skepticism, recognizing that not every market surge reflects true artistic merit or sustainable value. Instead, it may reflect the calculated moves of those seeking to profit from the illusion of scarcity and the appearance of sudden importance.
Most importantly, there never a widespread push to canonize Alice Baber as a major figure in the movement. Baber's paintings on canvas, characterized by soft forms and vibrant palettes, were often appreciated more for their decorative appeal than for their formal innovation or conceptual rigor. Baber's recent dramatic inflation of realized auction prices which have also been unfortunately translated by several galleries stands in stark contrast to the modest reception she received both during her career and in the decades that followed—raising the question of whether today's market is responding to Baber's artistic merit, or simply to a gap that savvy dealers saw fit to fill.
On close examination, the trajectory of Alice Baber realized auction prices is a textbook case of market distortion. Put more succinctly, Alice Baber's astonishing 2022 and 2023 auction price results at John Moran Auctioneers hint at a concerning pattern of market manipulation by the two respective galleries selling her art.
As recently as 2019, Alice Baber's paintings on canvas were routinely achieving realized auction prices in the low four figures, often under $8,000. By 2023, an Alice Baber work on canvas achieved an auction world record price of $698,500 at Sotheby's New York which came on the heals of a handful of staggering realized auction prices achieved in 2022 and 2023 largely at John Moran Auctioneers, a relatively unknown auction firm established in 1969 in Monrovia, California.
Alice Baber The Eight-Fold Path, 1973 sold for modest $2,500 Hindman Auctions, January 11, 2019
2019: Alice Baber Modest Market Presence
Artwork: The Eight-Fold Path, 1973
Auction House: Hindman Auctions, Palm Beach Collections
Date: January 11, 2019
Estimate: $800 – $1,200
Auction Result: Sold for $2,500
Details: This breathtaking 1973 Alice Baber oil on canvas, measuring 50 x 30 inches, was part of the estate of fashion designer Arnold Scaasi and Parker Ladd, fetching a modest $2,500 in 2019.
Alice Baber Wind Divided Mist the Darker, 1972 achieved $698,500 Sotheby's, September 28, 2023
2023: Alice Baber Auction World Record Record Price Result
Artwork: Wind Divided Mist the Darker, 1972
Auction House: Sotheby's, New York
Date: September 28, 2023
Estimate: $60,000 – $80,000
Auction Result: Sold for $698,500, world record auction price
Details: This 1972 Alice Baber oil on canvas, measuring 80 x 80 inches, set an all time auction world record for Alice Baber, selling for 10 times more than its pre-sale estimate.
2022 & 2023: Alice Baber Series of Sudden Auction Spike Results at John Moran, California
On August 30, 2022, Alice Baber's Swirl of Sounds-The Ghost in The Banyan Tree, a 1976 canvas estimated at only $3,000-$5,000, achieved an astonishing $187,500 at John Moran Auctioneers, more than 60 times the low pre-sale estimate.
,%20%22Swirl%20of%20Sounds%20-%20The%20Ghost%20in%20the%20Banyan%20Tree,%22%201976,%20Acrylic%20on%20canvas,%2072%22%20H%20x%2095.5%22%20W.png "Alice Baber Swirl of Sounds-The Ghost in The Banyan Tree, 1976 achieved $187,500, John Moran Auctions") |
| Alice Baber Swirl of Sounds-The Ghost in The Banyan Tree, 1976, achieved $187,500, John Moran, August 30, 2022 |
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| Alice Baber Swirl of Sounds-Wind, Rock And Sun, 1975 achieved $118,750. John Moran, October 25, 2022 |
Alice Baber auction prices kept climbing at John Moran Auctioneers when Alice Baber's Axe in the Grove, 1966, a 48 x 64 inch canvas achieved, a then record auction price of $275,000., February 28, 2023 which was eclipsed seven months later when Alice Baber's Wind Divided Mist the Darker, 1972 sold for $698,500., an auction world record at Sotheby's NY, September 24, 2023.
,%20%22Axe%20in%20the%20Grove,%22%201966,%20Oil%20on%20canvas,.png) | ||
Alice Baber Axe in the Grove, 1966, achieved $275,000., John Moran, February 28, 2023 Alice Baber's auction prices remained strong when John Moran sold yet another Alice Baber painting on August 29, 2023 titled The Door to the Gate to the Bridge, 1975, for $143,000; this inferior 34 x 54 inch canvas had a pre-sale estimate of $50,000-$70,000. To be very clear, there was no long runway—just a sharp vertical climb, seemingly driven by a concentrated public relations program by two galleries, one in New York and the other in Texas who also had a partnership association with a second New York gallery. There was a glaring lack of critical appraisal, no museum exhibitions, and a lack of any institutional embrace; in fact, museums that own works by Alice Baber were actively deaccessioning them so as to cash in. Furthermore, Baber's last solo gallery exhibition was over 40 years ago at the Katharina Rich Perlow Gallery in 1986. In a rational market, value builds gradually over time through consistent sales, secondary market performance, and cultural relevance. What we’re seeing here is not that. It's a market spike unmoored from historical pricing data, collector base, or sustained demand—something every serious collector should view with skepticism. This rapid escalation raises questions about the factors influencing such a dramatic change in valuation especially considering the relatively modest prices her works commanded just a few years prior. Most concerning, the two art dealers who claim to hold significant inventories of Alice Baber’s work also appear to have spent about $1 million to purchase Alice Baber inventory at John Moran Auctioneers, accounting for the bulk of Baber's highest priced realized auction lots. To this point, the unnamed New York Gallery claimed in a press release for its debut April 2024 Alice Baber exhibition that it "holds the largest cache of works from the artist and has played an instrumental role in the market’s recent surge of interest in Baber, taking her work from just $3,000 to nearly $700,000 at auction in November last year.” This New York Gallery conveniently fails to mention its direct involvement buying Alice Baber artworks at John Moran Auctioneers accounts for the bulk of the surge in Alice Baber auction prices. To be clear, this New York Gallery not only repeatedly bid up prices at John Moran Auctioneers, but also purchased 3 Alice Baber paintings at six figure prices. Bottomline, the unnamed New York Gallery spent nearly $500,000 to buy 3 Alice Baber paintings at leadership prices; its Alice Baber buying blitz begin August 30, 2022 when this New York Gallery purchased Swirl Of Sounds – The Ghost In The Banyan Tree, 1976, for $187,500, more than 60 times vs. the low pre-sale estimate; The Door to the Gate to the Bridge, 1975, acquired August 29, 2023, for $143,000; and The Sound of the Summer Hermit (The Key of Sound and Light), 1976, purchased June 13, 2023 for $150,000. In addition, the New York Gallery picked up The Blue Bow of the Jaguar, 1981 for $68,500 at Shannons, October 26, 2023. Notably, the repeated participation of bidding up and buying Alice Baber at John Moran Auctioneers no doubt laid the groundwork for this unnamed New York Gallery to sell an Alice Baber painting for $200,000 at the 2024 Armory Show which captured a great deal of art press. Most of the art press repeated the Gallery's press release highlighting the "recent surge of interest at auction in Baber, taking her work from just $3,000 to nearly $700,000". However, none of the published art press mentioned the New York Gallery's significant expenditure of almost $500,000 to buy 3 Alice Baber paintings at John Moran Auctioneers. Further exacerbating the situation, prior to its May-July 2024 Alice Baber exhibition, the Texas Gallery stated she "methodically acquired all 20 works in the show over the last two years.” Like the unnamed New York Gallery, the Texas Gallery failed to mention she purchased three Alice Baber paintings for no less than $537,500 at John Moran Auctioneers, including: Axe in the Ground, 1966, purchased for a staggering $275,000, Baber’s Swirls of Sounds - Wind, Rock and Sun, 1975, purchased for $187,500., October 25, 2022 and Baber's Light Ladder, 1966, a mediocre canvas with extensive condition issues, purchased for $75,000, June 13, 2023.
My observations are not as an outsider, but as someone deeply familiar with Alice Baber works of art, both works on canvas, unique works on paper and prints. Over the past two decades, I have reviewed hundreds and hundreds of transparencies and slides of original Alice Baber paintings as well as stacks of Alice Baber Archive materials—including personal records from Baber’s final years, kept by a former art dealer who was also one of her closest friends. This firsthand exposure has given me a comprehensive perspective of Alice Baber's visual language, her working methods, and evolution of her practice. Based on this first hand knowledge, I can say without equivocation that some of the purported Alice Baber paintings currently being offered for sale at inflated prices raise serious questions—not only about their merit, but in several cases, their authenticity. In the case of artwork by Alice Baber, I have repeatedly observed a lack of provenance and documentation. Authenticity issues are a repeated concern; since all of the sold Baber artworks were created 40-60 years ago, many of the canvases are surprisingly fresh and lack requisite and obvious exhibition details. For instance, many of the paintings don't include any labels on the verso that you would expect to see on paintings of a similar age from the 1960's to 1980's. The lack of documentation is reminiscent of the Knoedler Gallery scandal where works of art were created and sold yet they repeatedly lacked any verifiable pedigree. The sudden market demand for works by Alice Baber has created an environment ripe for errors, opportunism and misrepresentation. Alice Baber Signatures: Spurious vs. Authentic: |
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| Spurious Alice Baber signature |
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| Correct Alice Baber signature and date |
Furthermore, Alice Baber never had children; when she passed away in 1982, there was no immediate family heirs poised to steward her legacy in a centralized way. Many of the late Artist's works were dispersed informally—gifted to friends, colleagues and her sister, now deceased. Upon her death, the Alice Baber Art Fund was created under the jurisdiction of the Artist's Estate; the Alice Baber Art fund had the financial backing from the Baber Estate and included a limited selection of Alice Baber works of art, some of which was sold, others donated. The Fund was active for 16 years and dispersed grants to numerous women artists. In 2005, the Alice Baber Art Fund filed a final tax return detailing the liquidation of the organization's assets, including its remaining artworks, by public auction and distribution of proceeds to public charities, including the creation of a named fund to support visiting artists at Marlboro College.
-Alice Baber Art Fund, Annual Information Return (Form 990-PF), 2005
Contrary to the narrative implied by the recent market frenzy, there was no hidden trove of hundreds of untouched masterpieces lying dormant in the Artist's studio waiting to be "discovered" and unlike the vast inventory of art owned by the Andy Warhol and Keith Haring Estates, there are zero artworks remaining in the Estate of Alice Baber.
It gets even more strange!
What Are The Names and Credentials of Those Running The Alice Baber Project?
The Alice Baber Project presents itself as a non-profit organization that "seeks to document and research artworks by Alice Baber, with a view to complete an online updated and constantly expanded catalogue raisonné that will provide a comprehensive source for Baber scholarship", yet it is not registered as a non-profit entity in the United States, nor in the United Kingdom, despite claims of being “administered by a group of European collectors.” The glaring lack of legal transparency raises serious questions about the Project’s legitimacy and intent.
Adding to the skepticism, the unnamed New York Gallery that has frequently exhibited Baber’s artwork has publicly distanced itself from the Alice Baber Project. According to the gallery, the individuals behind the Alice Baber Project “have no authority when it comes to Alice Baber,” and the gallery expressed concern over the Project’s opaque operations and inability to authenticate and vet works of art created by Alice Baber.
More troubling is the fact that the individuals spearheading the Alice Baber Project, which is clearly not a disciplined, comprehensive or meaningful catalogue raisonné of Alice Baber's art, appear to have no direct connection to Alice Baber, nor any demonstrable expertise regarding her life, artistic development and/or body of work. It is highly irregular—if not outright suspect—for a catalogue raisonné, which is meant to serve as a scholarly and authoritative record of an artist’s oeuvre, to be initiated and accordingly organized by anonymous parties without any credible affiliation, art historical background, and/or curatorial oversight.
In short, the Alice Baber Project lacks transparency, legitimacy and the necessary qualifications as an independent and objective authority to provide meaningful information/documentation concerning the legitimacy and legacy of Alice Baber. It is hardly comprehensive as the Alice Baber Project has surprisingly incomplete records; currently the Alice Baber Project includes less than 40% of the Baber art holdings owned by museums and public collections. The Project provides no explanation regarding why so many collections are omitted, nor the methodology for inclusion. Unlike most catalogue raisonnes, the documentation is generally superficial. Artworks that are included lack comprehensive details including detailed exhibition history, ownership as well as essential details including where the respective works are Titled, where and how signed along with attribution. The glaring lack of scholarship is concerning, especially since we have no assurance that those running the Project are void of any bias. The lack of transparency and superficial record keeping only add chaos and confusion to the the legacy of Alice Baber.
The Takeaway
Collectors aren’t just buying art—they’re buying into a market, a narrative, and increasingly, a carefully curated myth that has been repeated orchestrated with misleading press releases. In today’s art world, where galleries are as much tastemakers as they are dealers, the lines between genuine rediscovery and strategic price engineering are alarmingly blurred.This isn’t to say many of these artists aren’t worthy of attention—but the speed, scale and selectivity of their meteoric market ascent should raise eyebrows. When a painting with no previous auction record suddenly commands a six or seven figure price, collectors must pause and interrogate what, exactly, are they buying. Is it the work itself—the form, the innovation, the cultural impact?
Am I investing in Fine Art or Am I Being Seduced by a Story Line?
*We have purposely not named the New York Gallery; that said, this “unnamed" New York Gallery is a downtown gallery primarily known for exhibiting lesser known female artists.
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