Presently, the global art market represents more than €55.5 bn a year. Approximately 40% of that value is made on the auction market. ln the European Union (EU) the art market sector employs c.220.000 people and comprises c.41.000 companies, even tough the weight of the EU ln the global art market has been decreasing over the past few years (from 53% in 2003 to 44% in 2006). Oesplte ali the buzz aroused with a sale of a painting by Picasso or Pollock over €100 mlllions, more than 90% of the lots sales at auction, eitfler in fine arts or decorative arts, aremade under a value of €10.000.

The data referring to Portugal is not sufficiently credible yet from a statistical point of view. However, according to the report coordinated by Clare McAndrewand published byThe European Fine Art foundation (TEFAF) in 2008, there are 535 companies ln Portugal related to the art business (antiquaries,art dealers and auction houses) and they employ c. 3000 people.

According to TEFAF, the Portuguese auction art market had a turnover of c.€8,6 millions in 2006 (a weak value when compareci wlth the €50 millions ofart works that Portugal imported ín the sarne year). Basing in the numbers by TEFAF, Portugal represents 0,2% of the world volume of transactions in  the auction market (UE=70,9%), although in terms of value the  weight of Portugal is even lighter, an insignlficant 0,01% (UE=44,4o/o). This statistical approach has underestimated the reality of the market, a point that has been stressed on the most recent enquiry on the Portuguese art market.

The research project that we propose here aims at achieving more accurately the real values involved in the auction art market in Portugal. To reach this goal it will be scrutinized the auction houses data available ín the catalogues and in the sales report made after every session. Whenever possible, these data will be scrutinized in cooperation with the auction houses. Until now it is already secured the cooperation in this project of two of the more important auction houses of Portugal, which are responsible for almost half of the auction market share in Portugal. Nevertheless, more than obtaining the numbers concerning the auction sector turnovers and volume of transaction, we are interested in knowing which are the typologies of art works that sell more, what kind of artifacts have an higher success at auction, how do different artists behave in the auction market, etc. To sum up, we want to  depict a portrait of the Portuguese art auction market that goes beyond the mere statistics. ln what: concerns this particular issue, we must stress that this research project focus only on the auction houses whose headquarters are established in Lisbon. lndeed, this kind of research implies grouping the lots in typologies, lmplies to analyze the  behavior of the different lots at auction, and implies to have access to ali the relevant information avallable on the lots. Therefore, for certain tasks and in certain moments of the research, these activities imply a dose cooperation with the auction sector, some times in the headquarters and archives of these cornpanies. Since we did not finda research partner in Oporto, and since it was not possible to support during several months the presence of a researcher in a different city, we decided to limit ourselves to the auction houses whose headquarter was establíshed in Lisbon. Furthermore, since these results only make sense when compareci in annual series, this project will be focused in the period between 2005 and 2011 (year of the project's condusion). The majority ofthe auction houses only started to present online their catalogues and sales results after 2002/04. Thus it is harder to obtain the data prior to 2005. Our goal Is to aggregate ai! the available data in a database that allows easy and fast queries to the -general results of this sector, but above ali that allows to know the preferences of the Portuguese market and the behavior of certain artists and types of art works.

Giving the nature of this project, it was necessary to join the competences of two groups of researchers belonging to two very different (but complementary) scientific areas and research units: on the one hand art historians; on the other managers and experts in finances. This project is also committed in the maintenance and strengthen of the recent MA in Art Markets Management, which begun only in September 2007. This MA is also a result of the cooperation of these two units of research, proving that these two groups can work together and achieve interesting results.

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