Amy Cappellazzo, head of the Contemporary Art Department at Christie's, New York's famous auction house, spoke Wednesday night at the second installment of the Rose Art Museum's "Private Passion" discussion series. The lectures offer an insider look into building and managing a successful contemporary art collection. Cappellazzo's discussion, "The Long and Short History of the Contemporary Art Market," focused on the growth of prominent private collections and the auction house business. She expressed the overall aim of her talk to show that art history can be examined as a chronological account of patronage and connoisseurship, as well as the development of visual and creative ideology.

Warning Rose Art Director Joe Ketner to cover his ears, Cappellazzo stated that the best contemporary art collections during the past 30 years, with the exception of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) were all privately assembled. Cappellazzo jokingly compared the budget of the MOMA to that of a small European country. She attributed the rise in formidable, private contemporary art collections to the large number of wealthy patrons with private capital looking assemble prominent collections during their lifetimes. Cappellazzo took pride in describing the art world as "one of the last great, unregulated markets of the world."
She proceeded to recount the growth and development of contemporary art in the auction business, encouraging people to view her talk as a history of creative tastemakers. In order for there to be a market for a piece, she stated the work must embody freshness, rareness, quality, provenance and taste.

Such works have led to some of Christie's most successful contemporary sales, including items from the Ganz collection. Cappellazzo began by describing the sale from the collection of Robert C. Scull, who sold his recent acquisitions much to the dismay of contemporary artist community. This sale led to the current trend of collectors, such as Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, auctioning their contemporary pieces depending on the direction of their collections at the moment. Cappellazzo also commented how secondary works by major contemporary artists sold remarkably well as collectors market the painter's personality instead of the piece itself. She ended the discussion by describing how even copies of paintings auction well, as they serve as advertisements for the original.

Cappellazzo's talk was well-received; she brought a financial and economic perspective to the field of collecting contemporary art.