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Hyperinflation in Art Investment Market as Picasso Sells for $179 Million
Hyperinflation in Art Investment Market as Picasso Sells for $179 Million
- Picasso’s “Les Femme d’Alger” sells for a record $179 million
- Most expensive painting ever sold at auction
- Hyperinflation in art market as price increases $150 million in 20 years ...
- Reports in February of the private sale of Gauguin’s “When Will You Marry” for $300 million
- Art price volumes doubled since 2009
- As currencies debase super rich seek out stores of value
- Gold remains accessible store of value for middle classes
- Pablo Picasso’s “Les Femme d’ Alger”
Pablo Picasso’s “Les Femme d’ Alger” sold at Christie's in New York last night for $179 million - the highest price ever paid at auction for a painting.
It smashed the record previously held by Francis Bacon’s “Three Studies of Lucian Freud” which sold for $142 million in 2013.
The painting appreciated nearly $150 million in less than 20 years. Hyperinflation appears to be taking hold in the art investment market.
Painted in 1955, Les Femmes d’ Alger is based on Delacroix’s 1843 painting “Femmes d’Alger dans leur Appartement” a sensuous depiction of how the European imagined a harem scene with luxuriantly dressed woman smoking hashish from a hookah. Picasso’s depiction is more overtly erotic exploring the strange psychology of sexual fascination with the female form.
The record breaking price for the piece reflects the ever expanding bubble in high end art. In February, Bloomberg reported that Gauguin’s “When Will You Marry” was rumoured to have been sold to the Qatar Museum Authority for almost $300 million - one of the highest prices ever paid for a painting.
- Keanu Reeves and “When Will You Marry” Painting
Indeed, the sale of high end art has more than doubled in price volume since 2009. Back then art sales totalled $6.3 billion. In the intervening period, with QE cash sloshing around the markets, further enriching the world's super wealthy, prices for luxury art have surged and last year the total market was priced at $16.3 billion.
This surge in price has been mirrored by the rise in prices for luxury property in London and other major cities as the super-rich seek stores of value for their cash.
The trend of rising prices in luxury art is succinctly described by the Washington Post:
“The steady inflation of the art market can be summed up with a quick glance at the list of most expensive auctioned works. At number five is a Picasso sold for $106.5 million in 2010. Number four is Edvard Munch’s iconic “The Scream” sold for $120 million in 2012. A year later, Francis Bacon’s “Three Studies of Lucian Freud” reached $142.4 million. And then there were the two heavy hitters from Monday’s auction: Picasso’s “Women of Algiers (Version O)” for $179.4 million and Alberto Giacometti’s “Man Pointing” for $141.3 million, which is the most expensive sculpture ever sold at auction.”
There is risk for art “investors” to continue to shell out enormous sums of cash in a market that appears increasingly frothy.
However, as with luxury property, we suspect that these well informed individuals are seeking out art as a store of value because ultimately, even at highly inflated prices, it may turn out to be less risky than holding cash in a bank that can be devalued and is may be subject to deposit bail-ins.
- William Banzai “Women of Cashiers”
The art market looks very toppy. It is subject to sentiment like all markets today and this could lead to sharp price falls should jitters begin to creep in regarding very high valuations. As a diversification, art has some merit as it is not correlated with financial assets, but only as a small part of an overall portfolio.
For those of us who cannot afford a Picasso - as the great heritage of western ideas and art continue to be shuttered away into private Xanadus - gold remains an accessible and ideal store of value.
History shows that it is one of the, if not the, ultimate store of value.
Must read guide and research on bail-ins here:
Protecting Your Savings In The Coming Bail-In Era
MARKET UPDATE
Today’s AM LBMA Gold Price was USD 1,184.45, EUR 1,051.07 and GBP 755.49 per ounce.
Yesterday’s AM LBMA Gold Price was USD 1,184.75, EUR 1,062.20 and GBP 768.37 per ounce.
- Gold in USD - 1 Day
Gold fell $5.10 or 0.43 percent yesterday to $1,183.40 an ounce, and silver slipped $0.20 or 1.21 percent to $16.28 an ounce. Gold in Singapore was at $1,182.83 an ounce near the end of day trading in Asia prior to flat lining in Europe before a sharp spike in gold soon after the LBMA gold price was fixed.
Significant volatility and sharp price moves in the global bond markets herald coming volatility. This may be making investors nervous. The bond market volatility seen in recent days may at last be benefitting gold.
Government bonds sold off again today leading to sharp falls in stock markets. Japanese government bonds fell sharply overnight after the weakest auction since the Lehman collapse saw yields rise sharply from nearly zero percent levels.
Gold fell with equities yesterday and the small dip may have been the result of less safe haven bids as Greece made a $837 million payment to the IMF a day early.
Some form of Grexit remains on the cards as Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said the liquidity situation was “terribly urgent” and a deal to release further funds was needed in the next couple of weeks.
The SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed ETF saw its largest decline this year on Friday, a signal of bearish sentiment.
June 16-17 is the U.S. Federal Reserve's next policy meeting. San Francisco Federal Reserve President John Williams made comments that the Fed is unlikely to provide any warning ahead of an increase to interest rates, claiming that the Fed needs to “get out of this business of telegraphing decisions in advance.”
Although the problem with Fed communications is not the timing but rather the frequently contradictory nature of such communications and the fact that they frequently fail to do what they say they will do - having promised to increase interest rates since 2009.
In European late morning trading precious metals are higher in dollar terms. Gold is up 1 percent at $1,195.69 an ounce. Silver is up 1.03 percent at $16.46 and platinum is up 0.93 percent at $1,136.90.
Breaking News and Research Here
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Pardon me for dominatung the Comments Board. Too many fucking Art Classes so many years ago...
Ron is an old friiend, just finishing his firet degree in Photography when I was just seriously beginning my Photography Degree. I'm on the fence regardeng his recent work, but I love the older, more subversive 'billboard art'. He's always been extremely prolific. Check it out, see if you can find what he painted on the Palestinian side of 'the Wall' the Israelis built for 'security'. 'Pardon our oppression' indeed...
/www.popaganda.com
The art transactions of the entire 20th century are only to serve the financial crimes and money laundering for the elite. http://mileswmathis.com/launder.pdf
Never thought much of Picasso and his random boob fascination. The guy should have been psychoanalyzed. His mother probably stopped breast feeding too early and he never got over it.
Humorous results when someone who is ignorant about art pretends to be an 'Art Critic'.
He's just a critical critter...
I cannot afford Picasso's but Numismatic items are selling for many multiples of what they were just 15 years ago.
Silver bullion coins bring a rather hefty premium over their silver content, often more than double the COMEX silver price. A bullion coin is composed of one troy ounce of .999 or higher silver content, or an even fraction thereof. One of the most expensive bullion issues is the Chinese Panda. Some dates sell for hundreds of dollars. They minted a different design for each year and kept mintage numers low. If you don't believe me, look on ebay.
Some popular coins are not even really rare but still sell for a very high price. The 1947-48 Cinco Pesos is a nice, hefty piece of silver depicting Cuahtemoc, Aztec Warrior King before Cortez. 15 years ago I could easily find for 4 bucks all day. If you'd like to know how much they sell for today you can look it up on ebay...
I would advise against buying the scarce or rare collectibles that sell for hundreds or thousands unless you know what you're doing. A person could get Badly Burned.
The headline says they sold Picasso. I didn't know you could still sell people.
His corpse is probably not too squishy and stinky anymore since he died in 1973.
FOFOA did a great piece on Koons's balloon dogs.
http://fofoa.blogspot.de/2013/12/eye-for-gold.html
I Very Much prefer the Late Cajun Artist Rodrigue's Blue Dog. Interesting article there.
This is one of James G Ricktards's favorite themes. But considering the number of high-class forgeries, lab authenticity verification costs, insurance and storage costs, don't even bother if you have less than $10mil
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Beltracchi
Another thing, Shaggy. You say, 'don't bother with less than 10 million.' I know you're a fairly intelligent guy, but you should not give advice on a subject you are not expert in. I traded two photographic pieces to an artist friend for a sculptural wall piece that is already worth over 1,500 bucks. These bacame popular with set designers appearing in a long list of movies, sitcoms, soap operas, etc.
There is a movie called 'Housesitter' with Steve Marrtin and Goldie Hawn which has a scene with the two stars facing off arguing. On the wall behing are two of his sculptures, one on either side of Martin and Hawn...
You're easily the biggest faggot I've ever seen on the hedge
I once held a Van Gogh, possibly... Van Gogh would paint many small studies referred to as sketches. Many of these were sold by his brother, very cheaply on the West Bank, the Latin Quarter, in Paris. The dude that showed it to me lived in a shack in a small Texas town, on the other side of the tracks. He said his Auntie had always told him as a child she would see him looking at it and always told him, 'you make sure and take care of that'. When she passed, all he wanted was that painting, as his sisters and cousins fought over all the fine silver dining ware and antique furniture, not even noticing the 'picture'.
He said his 'auntie' ran a catering business in Austin was and often hired for fund-raising events for Ann Richards, a Very Classy old broad who would have been Governor again except They decided to install W... Anyhow, these Texas 'elites' often travelled to Europe, so this painting 'could' have been authentic but it had no Provenance. The painting was on raw, un-gessoed canvas and the brushwork was extraordinary. It sure looked like Van Gogh's brushwork. I tried to get him to come with me to take it to a gallery in Ft Worth to have it authenticated but he was always afraid he'd be ripped-off.
He still lives in the same shack in the same small town... And I still cannot say that I held a Van Gogh.
If you can easily pay $170 MM for a painting, U R well beyond those things that afflict mortal men, and have been anointed by the gods.
The notion that the top end art 'market' is tippy, is absurd.
You're gonna have to do better than this to sell gold.
Over rated art, buy gold
two things have happened in the collectible market, the middle class consumer has run out of cash (hummel figures, etc) and the 1% (alternately the .01%) now dominate the market. the 1% can't be bothered with gold coins, or with common trinkets, they want big ticket items. end the 1% and these things will come back to earth (just as trophy homes are coming back to earth)
Who says there isn't inflation?
When you can print money at will, who cares what the cost is
Not to get all technical and shit but the hyperinflation occurred when the Fed printed (or committed to print) the dollars. The rising price of various stores of value is just the effect.
in a hundred years the annotated Cramer will sell for 1 billions dollars! booyah!
on microfiche. it will be kitschy then.