Introducing: The Artnet Intelligence Report, Spring 2020 Edition

In the art business, perhaps more than in almost any other industry, information is power--and when it comes to the value of artworks, good information is especially hard to come by. An oft-repeated legend has it that Larry Gagosian rose to prominence in part by securing invitations to collectors' homes, memorizing the trophies on display, and using that knowledge to generate third-party offers high enough to literally sell the artworks off their walls. So it's not entirely surprising that many of the stories in this issue investigate how data--a lack of it, an abundance of it, or a new, high-tech version of it--has the potential to shake the art market's very foundation. To examine the dark side of information asymmetry, we spelunk into the murky story of Inigo Philbrick, a former wunderkind dealmaker who capitalized on the market's opacity--specifically the fact that buyers and sellers typically have no idea who is on the opposite end of a deal--to allegedly swindle his clients to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. We also explore how artificial intelligence could rewire the art market as a much more transparent, highly efficient industry--but only, perhaps, if the parties who have historically hoarded information are willing to share it for the good of the whole.