Break Down Data Silos and Increase Your Art Sales

ArtTech will help the art industry climb out of the dark ages of data analytics.

Published Jun 18, 2021
Author Team ARTERNAL

ArtTech will help the art industry climb out of the dark ages of data analytics

The art industry is stuck in the dark ages of data analytics.

Consider for a moment how the operations of galleries and auction houses are traditionally managed. One proprietary system might be used to manage sales, while another might be used to collect information about collectors. Still another system might be used to handle communications. These days, art institutions are expected to work with a tremendous amount of data from any number of sources — but with so much of it contained in siloed systems, a lot of the information can get lost.

Art institutions that want to compete in the 21st century will need to adopt CRM tools and automated platforms if they want to stay competitive. Unfortunately, the art industry’s ability to do this is hindered by its avoidance of ArtTech, a neologism my cofounder at ARTERNAL, Sean Green, has used to describe the leveraging of new digital technologies to digitize the art world.

ArtTech tools help to collect, store, and analyze disparate streams of data, allowing auction houses, galleries, and other art institutions to work with greater integrity and transparency across digital ecosystems.

What does it look like to desilo operational processes and systems? What happens when art industry professionals are able to use a single source to manage all of their data? As chief technology officer at ARTERNAL, it’s my job to answer these questions — and I consider it my responsibility to share it with professionals working in the evolving 21st century art industry.

Other Industries Are Ahead of the Curve

Data silos are expensive and inefficient. What gallery or auction house has the human resources to sift through all of the data that sits in separate, non-communicating databases? In fact, annually, poor data quality (AKA data that companies simply store on databases) costs businesses worldwide between $9.7 and $14.2 million annually — for the US economy, this number could rise to a whopping $3.1 trillion.

Connecting siloed data isn’t a new conversation — many industries have been focused on this for years. For example, in 2019, the Big Data analytics market had reached nearly $30 billion in the banking industry, allowing banks to provide better, more personalized customer service to their customers.

Being able to analyze Big Data has allowed banks and financial institutions to root out illegal activities such as money laundering and manage risk with greater integrity.

The art world should take note, as new anti-money laundering laws are set to disrupt our entire industry in 2021. Earlier this year, the US Senate passed into law the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (AMLA), which will require art sellers to identify and register the owners of limited liability companies (LLCs). This means that soon, it will be much harder for criminals or even high-net-worth collectors to use shell companies to hide their identities when buying art.