Joseph KOSUTH (1945)

As Leonard de Vinci was already affirming, back in the XVth century, art is ‘Cosa mentale’, a thing of the mind. Five centuries after this premise, artists gave the concept precedence over the realisation of the work and the skill of the artist. The work became witness to an idea. Officially born in the 1960s, the conceptual trend is still around today, its tone neutral and the message clearly to the fore.

Since it reformed its auctioneers, France has increased its share of the auction market from 7% of worldwide turnover in 2001, to 8.6% in 2002. Yet growth in the wider sector has done little for the contemporary art market. France only generated 4.5% of the proceeds from contemporary artworks in 2002.