A swedish glass gallery, Kosta Boda, has come up with a novel way to auction an artwork. Instead of the usual monetary bids, bidders could only win an artwork with the intensity of their emotional and physical reactions to the piece. Coined the "auction based on emotions", no money changed hands for three pieces valued at over €25,000 in total.
On the night of the auction, each bidder was brought into a closed off room and sensors were hooked onto their hand and ear. At this point, the artwork was unveiled and the sensors began monitoring the bidders heart rate and galvanic skin response. Each bidder had 60 seconds to experience the work and after going through the process for the 303 participants, the three with the highest physical response were awarded the artworks.
Image: a bidder at the Kosta Boda auction
