Why Is Art So Damned Expensive?

"The top art prices may have little to do with classic economics. Noah Horowitz, whose Art of the Deal is a crucial text on the subject, says in the long run your investment in art may only do about as well as your holdings in bonds—and comes with greater risk. (But, as one major New York collector put it, that’s not so bad, if you have nowhere else to store your income. And anyway, 'bonds aren’t that good to look at.') At this moment, when the 1 percent has the cash to burn, buying art is less about finance than about the cultural value of money, and of art. 'A dollar is not a dollar is not a dollar,' says Viviana Zelizer, the great Princeton sociologist who wrote The Social Meaning of Money. The dollars spent in Miami are 'cultural dollars,' Zelizer says, and that makes them obey their own rules."  [Read Full Article]

Published by:  The Daily Beast
On:  12/05/11
Website:  http://www.thedailybeast.com

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