Architecture: It is Time to Market Modernism

It always rankles with architects that their work is rarely valued.

A simple comparison of sales prices for great works of art and great works of architecture reveals an astonishing discrepancy. It is difficult to draw parallels between artists and architects but in the case of two near-contemporaries, Picasso (1881-1973) and Le Corbusier (1887-1965), a Spaniard and a Swiss who each chose to make his home in Paris and each revolutionised his respective cultures, it is, for our purposes, reasonable.

Picasso’s “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” sold in May for $106.5m. Two years ago, the top floor of Le Corbusier’s Villa Stein, in an upmarket Parisian suburb, came on to the market. It was being touted at £775,000 ($1.1m), barely more than an equivalent apartment in a contemporary building. Yet this is one of the key buildings of the modern movement, a villa of stunning originality and exquisite proportions, a landmark in architectural history. It is also a great apartment – airy, with wonderful views. So why the disparity?

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