Originally Posted by
Drew Wiley
It's no secret that massive amounts of oligarch and dictator money via family members and cronies have gotten laundered in big East Coast art auctions and specialty fairs over the past decade or so. They're in a hurry and willing to overpay. Unlike real estate, Paintings, photos, and jewels are quite portable and concealable. Even the Nazis and Mafia knew that. Doesn't mean that's what went on this instance; but it does help explain the seeming recklessness of very high spending. Those types know how to extort more and more money anyway.
Long term trends are something entirely different. There were huge amounts of money spent on neoclassical and pre-Raphaelite paintings in the mid 19th C which have never regained the same value. Auctions can do odd things anyway. I wouldn't read too much into it. And if certain images are out there in significant overall volumes, one or two very high sales will tempt a lot of people to sell off those same images from their own collections, and the price can drastically drop for awhile. Back and forth it goes.
Music, art, photography, makes little difference. Most of today's superstars will be totally forgotten within a generation or two, just like those of former generations. Taste is a very fickle thing. And having a lot more money to spend doesn't necessarily equate to having more taste either; often the opposite, it seems.
Bookmarks