Pre-sale information and hammer prices for Australian Indigenous art

Using sales data from 1987-2011 we investigate the role that pre-sale price information plays in determining hammer prices for Australian Indigenous artworks. Importantly, we control for the degree of market concentration as this might influence buyers' perceptions of fairness in relation to price estimates which are provided by auction houses. Auction houses therefore act as important intermediaries between art sellers and art buyers. The results suggest that pre-sale estimates and market concentration have a differential impact on hammer prices, depending on the point in the conditional realised price distribution under examination.