Abstract

We analyze the price structure of sequential auctions of modern and contemporary art that took place in Italy during the period 1983-96. Contrary to previous empirical studies, we do not find any “afternoon” effect - i.e., a decline of auction prices relative to their estimates.If anything, we find the opposite, or “morning”, effect. Our results are robust to different econometric specifications. Taking into consideration the possible dynamic nature of price determination, we propose an interpretation of the empirical results that encompasses previous contributions.