"The Worth of Art (1 & 2)" by Judith Benhamou-Huet (Assouline, 2008)
In her two-book series "The Worth of Art," the journalist Judith Benhamou-Huet, who writes a column for "Les Échos," the French equivalent of the Wall Street Journal, evaluates the factors contributing to the value of a work of art. As she told "Art+Auction" recently, “When you write every week about the art market, you need to build a theory about what you observe.” Hers emphasizes the often-absurd relationship between money and art, and she articulates it in prose that is flecked with pithy rhetorical questions, Marxist buzzwords and hints of French existentialism. It may not be the most precise deconstruction of art's value, but the polemics are certainly entertaining.

Courtesy Assouline