Art and Value is the first comprehensive analysis of art's political economy throughout classical, neoclassical and Marxist economics. It provides a critical-historical survey of the theories of art's economic exceptionalism, of art as a merit good, and of the theories of art's commodification, the culture industry and real subsumption. Key debates on the economics of art are examined in detail. Subjecting mainstream and Marxist theories of art's economics to an exacting critique, Art and Value concludes with a new Marxist theory of art's economic exceptionalism.