The market, like copyright and art theory, is an ontology of art, or at least some kind of substitute for one.
Conceptualism dematerialized the art object in favour of its theoretical description, an ontology.
The market has similarly dematerialized the artwork in favour of the entities and relationships that it posits, an ontology. How much? When? Who? Where? Who else?
This is an impoverished ontology, the reliance on simple tags, numbers and data from outside of the artwork creates an ontological proxy for the artwork that has very little to do with the artwork qua artwork.
But in any system of relations figures and grounds emerge and gain proportion and composition. And the physical artwork (even for relational works) remains as the grit in the pearl. Either is a point of friction and a possible point of critique. It’s just not clear what of.