Picasso Sells for Record $106.5 MillionCOMMENTS
Even in terms of rich people economics this makes no sense to me. I love Picasso, don't get me wrong, but in todays buyers market I could probably buy a small island, a Gulfstream jet to transport me, and finance my supervillain-esque island compound for that price.
reply: Cash is trash.
Art can be sold overseas, is easily transported, and is untraceable. You can also claim it as assets on a balance sheet.
It's a better investment than something as louche as bouillon.
Art is always valuable as a vehicle for money laundering. Not that I think there's anything wrong with that from an ethical standpoint, it's just that's what it's for.
But in this case, when cubism goes out of fashion eventually, what's a billionaire to do? New art crazes are always happening, but they ain't making any more islands (if Dubai's real estate collapse goes as expected. Just bide your time...).
reply: Eh, eventually, the art market will fall apart, as it always does.
Buyers pick it up for "legacy" and to pad their egos. You're a pretty big pimp among rich people if you have a Picasso. How rich you are stops mattering so much at a certain point.
That's when you start buying art, bankrolling "grassroots" political machines, producing art, running philanthropies, etc.
When cubism stops being cool, you donate the paintings to a prominent museum.
It may also be a symptom of the stimulus boom. The smart money will dump cash when inflation is coming without many prospects for alternative investments.
I mean, it's a pretty fucking sweet deal when you can use ZIRP to buy Picassos for nothing. I'd do that deal many times over.
When political risk is high, it's also a great time to dump your cash reserves into easily smuggled assets.
Remind me to hire you as my accountant and general financial adviser when I attain my empire. You seem like you'd keep a cool head and manage to get me a sweet deal when the revolution overthrows my totalitarian regime. In all seriousness though, your perspective on art as an investment for the super-rich is really intriguing and has educated me as to why these people think a Picasso may be worth 0.1Bn dollars. It makes total sense in the same way that any other stable alternative to cash does.
reply: Accounting, you'd have to find someone else. General financial advisor, sure.
But I'd loooooove to have a Canadian work visa, at least for a time. Canada is the atheist Saudi Arabia with plenty of mines to boot.
A lot to love about the culture, at least.
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Sotheby's Preview Work of Tamara de Lempicka_________________________________________________
