Mary Ann Sieghart’s enquiry into gender bias in the international art market (11 August) began at a Sotheby’s auction with the startling news that while the record sale price for a living male artist is $91.1 million (Jeff Koons), the female equivalent (Jenny Saville) is a paltry $12.4 million (for Propped, detail inset).

Recalculating Art
BBC radio 4

Mary Ann Sieghart’s enquiry into gender bias in the international art market (11 August) began at a Sotheby’s auction with the startling news that while the record sale price for a living male artist is $91.1 million (Jeff Koons), the female equivalent (Jenny Saville) is a paltry $12.4 million (for Propped, detail inset). Shocked that a milieu renowned for its “progressive and inclusive” attitudes should permit such inequalities, Sieghart set out in pursuit.

We began with some first principles. How is art valued? The people from Sotheby’s talked about “a whole raft of information and aesthetic judgements”. There was also something called “the absolute wow factor”. As for the conspicuous lack of product by female artists on view at the London Art Fair, a suspicion lurked that certain male collectors merely declined to buy art by women. In this context, it was possible to sympathise with the male dealer who, cornered by Sieghart behind his stall, murmured – a bit shamefacedly – that whatever one thought of the imbalances on display, it was his job to supply the market with what it wanted.

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