"The problem is that the art market isn’t allowed, by its practitioners, to be a real market, and instead operates on a series of conventions which make it deeply broken on many levels."

That's Felix Salmon, connecting venture capital "down rounds" to the art market.  Related thoughts from Mostafa Heddaya here.  I'm interested in the notion of a "real" market vs. one that "operates on a series of conventions."  What makes a market "real"?  How do we tell the pretend markets from the real ones?