Every Wednesday, Artnet News brings you The Gray Market. The column decodes important stories from the previous week—and offers unparalleled insight into the inner workings of the art industry in the process.
This week, on new art’s chances of attracting new scrutiny…
REIN MAKERS
In recent generations, the global art market has become infamous for pairing a small set of industry-specific regulations with a startling amount of money changing hands year to year. But as artists, art sellers, and intermediaries explore how they might integrate into the metaverse, the much-hyped next phase of online life, their relative freedom from government scrutiny in this new territory is in far more danger than many art professionals realize.
Almost a year ago, a variety of lawmakers across continents began quietly circling the metaverse as an area worth regulatory attention. The succeeding months haven’t just seen officials in the U.S. and E.U. go public with their concerns. Regulators have now made formal commitments to shape the metaverse—even as developers and…
