The Sculpture Market: An Adjacent Year Regression Index

This paper analyses the performance of an investment in sculpture during theperiod 1987–1995 by applying the hedonic price technique with time dummyvariables to a sample of over 27,000 sales at auctions. The main finding isthat the adjacent year price index differs substantially between theinexpensive/middle portfolio and the expensive portfolio. The first showsthe existence of a boom period until 1990, followed by a non boom period. Bycontrast, the return of an investment in the expensive portfolio performedsomewhat better during the period analysed, with the only fall in the priceindex in 1990 and 1991. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2002