$60 Million for a Blow-Up Dog?

$60 Million for a Blow-Up Dog?
Shatura Power Station. Russia has the largest peak power capacity in the world
(Photo via moskva-stroyka.ru)
Talk about ringing a bell!
This ring-a-ding-ding comes from the New York Observer:
‘Sales of contemporary art at public auctions surpassed $2 billion for the first time last year, the Paris-based arts-data organization Artprice said.
The report tallied auction sales between July 2013 and July 2014, and it found that contemporary art sales grew 40% from the previous year. The number of big-ticket items that sold for over 10 million euro ($12.8 million) more than doubled in the period.
Those who follow the art market will remember the record-breaking Christie’s auction in November that saw buyers walk away with the most expensive publicly auctioned piece of art ever, Francis Bacon’s $142.4 million Three Studies of Lucian Freud (1969). That auction also minted Jeff Koons’ $58.4 million Balloon Dog (Orange) (1994-2000) as the most expensive piece by a living artist ever sold at auction.’
That’s another bad thing about being rich – you have to live with this stuff. Even if you don’t own it, your new friends and neighbors will.
Unless you’re autistic – or a savant, like Warren Buffett – you’ll find it hard to avoid. Contemporary art and big, expensive houses are hugely popular among the wealthy elite. And most people are very susceptible to peer influence.
That is what creates investment opportunities, too. The lumpen investoriat – like the lumpen electorate – does not do much serious thinking. Instead, it reacts emotionally and primitively.
It takes up positions that are too expensive. And then, in a panic, it stampedes away from them… leaving them too cheap. That’s when the bells start ringing.

This post was published at Acting-Man on September 29, 2014.