“A&F (Art & Farce?) Markets proposes a new, centralised and liquid marketplace for art. Through its unique structure, A&F Markets allows investors to buy and sell ʻsharesʼ in major artworks (www.artfinance.fr)”. Sounds like a surefire measure to moneterize unsellable dogs in closets. Is this what we have been reduced to? Apparently.
The founders of the IGA Automobile Fund, hoping to raise $150m to buy and sell classic cars and predicting annual returns of 15%, claim classic cars have “outperformed almost all other commodities (Ingear, The Sunday Times, page 5, January 10, 2011)”. As much as I love cars, can anyone other than the CEO of IGA verify that?
Houses you don’t inhabit, wine you don’t drink, art you don’t see, and cars you don’t drive. Not to mention a $330,000 truffle—which you were meant to eat, but at that price I’d rather put it in a vitrine or bronze it. Is it 2007 all over again; can our memories be that short? It’s missionary materialism run amok. Love is blind, money blinding. Don’t get me wrong, I am in it deep.
Kenny Schachter