Hello, I'm Evan Davis and thank you for downloading this program. In this edition of the

bottom line, did you know a red painting will sell more than a green one? Why? Well, we find out

or try to as we take a long, hard stare at art, a market with global sales of nearly 40 billion

pounds. Hello and welcome to the program. We're delving into the workings

of one particularly interesting market today, the art market. And I use that word deliberately.

It is a market. It's like any other. Money changes hands, demand and supply play a part in

setting prices. Investors invest in the expectation of earning a decent return.

And yet, no one would think it is an entirely normal market.

The determinants of value in the art market are especially obscure to some of us.

There's no accounting for taste, you might say.

So if the art sector has certain rules of its own,

we'll be trying to work out what they are, with three guests, each representing a different piece of the art world.

Let us spend a few minutes meeting them. First up is someone who actually create content.

Grayson Perry, who is one of Britain's best known artists. Grayson, just very briefly describe your career trajectory.

I left art college in 1982.

I came to London, squatter, went to evening classes, learned how to make vases.

I've never had any trouble selling my work, but then the prices went up incrementally. I went through maybe a half

a dozen different art dealers. And I didn't, I think my career didn't really take off, I would say,

until about I was 40. Right. And then I, early 50s at the moment. Yes. Yeah. Mid 50s. Yeah. So I kind of, I rose without trace, you could say.

I was an artist, artist.

Right.

Interestingly, you won the Turner Prize in 2003.

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