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This Is What $800 Million In Ten Pieces Of Art Looks Like
On Monday, Picasso’s Women of Algiers (Version O), set an auction house record when it sold for $179,365,000, including the house's premium, prompting us to remark that if you were looking for signs of runaway inflation, Christie’s may be a good place to start.
The nearly $200 million price tag for the “riot of colors focused on scantily dressed women” is, according to WSJ, reflective of the work’s “trophy” status which it earned as a result of its “ownership pedigree”. Translated from high-end art world parlance to plain English: for billionaires who have seen their obscene fortunes balloon under monetary policies designed to inflate financial assets at the expense of everything else (including market stability), purchasing art affords the buyer an even greater opportunity to “boast” than hoarding $100 million homes because after all, there a lot of mega mansions, but there’s only one vibrant, multi-hued Picasso riff on a Delacroix, so really, $180 million is a bargain, especially when most of the purchase price will be recouped by S&P 2,500, or SHCOMP 6,000 (depending on the nationality of the unnamed buyer).
This trend isn’t likely to change anytime soon, and as Bloomberg reports, more than $2 billion in art has been sold at Christie’s and Sotheby’s in the last week alone with the top 10 pieces accounting for an astounding $800 million.
The art market is on such a tear even the insiders are scratching their heads. Since New York’s spring sales started last week, at least $2.1 billion of art has been sold at Christie’s and Sotheby’s, with the top 10 lots accounting for almost $800 million.
Christie’s said collectors from 35 countries were bidding at its May 11 sale while Sotheby’s said clients from more than 40 countries were out in force the next evening. They jockeyed for Impressionist, modern, postwar and contemporary art.
“There’s a lot of money out there and people are chasing great works,” said Mera Rubell, who, along with her husband, Don, runs a private museum in Miami showcasing their collection. “Now the young artists are selling for millions.”
Without further ado, here is what $800 million in 10 pieces of art looks like:
#1: Pablo Picasso, “Les Femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’),” $179.4 million
#2: Alberto Giacometti, “L’Homme au Doigt,” $141.3 million
#3: Mark Rothko “No. 10,” $81.9 million
#4: Pablo Picasso, “Buste de Femme (Femme a la Resille),” $67.4 million
#5: Vincent Van Gogh, “L’Allée des Alyscamps,” $66.3 million
#6: Lucian Freud, “Benefits Supervisor Resting,” $56.2 million
#7: Andy Warhol “Colored Mona Lisa,” $56.2 million
#8: Claude Monet, “Nympheas,” $54 million
#9: Francis Bacon “Portrait of Henrietta Moraes,” $47.8 million
#10: Mark Rothko, “Untitled (Yellow and Blue),” $46.5 million
* * *
Bloomberg sums it up nicely: "You know the market is frothy when a Monet that sells for $40.5 million doesn’t make the final cut for a top 10 list."
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Vomit
Where is the art in No 10?
<---What? You don't see it? You barbarian.
<----I don't see it either.
Y'all missing the point of No. 10 and Yellow and Blue. The art is in convincing someone that a yellow and a blue stripe is worth $40M
Holy smokes! Except for the Van Gogh and Monet, those are worth approximately one squirt of piss.
Its not about the object, its all about vanity.
Only a jew could like any of that fingerpainting...
So, what would Picasso's stuff be worth if he could paint?
I am not sure why those two are worth something any more than the rest. I can hand my baby a brush and some paint and let an infant go to town and it would look like those.
For all you Big Lebowski fans.
Maude Lebowski's vagina monologuehttps://youtu.be/xs3OWJ53rHE
Apparently deformed and fat women is all the rage nowadays, those guys would've saved a lot of money if they visited the deep web instead...
WTFF?
They might as well just b fucking selling fingerpainted portraits of Bob Rubin, Benjamin Netanyahu, Greenspan, Bernanke, & Yellen...
I mean... SERIOUSLY!... This planet is full fucking RETARD!
Warhol and Rothko = Emperors new clothes.
For you uncultured desk jockeys, once you see Van Gogh and Monet up close and in person you can see the talent and brilliance. All the other stuff looks like crap to me.
artists practice their trade by default. otherwise they'd deliver mail or process applications at the DMV...
two Rothko's...impressive.
Not two of my favorites of his but still, I like Rothko...Abstract Expressionst (my favorite genre of Art)
Those are a couple of his "colorfield" paintings...think of 'em like Spiritual batteries...no rip off in 'em, quite the opposite....HE didn't hang 80 million $ price tags on 'em by the way ya frickin Phillistines....
Lucien Freud's (grandson of Sigmund) "Benefits Supervisor Resting"....Come ON!
that's pure ZH Gold!
Im widya. Rothko has artistic merit, but its virtually impossible to appreciate without seeing the painting up close in person.
when you do, you are confronted with nothing but colour in vignettes, and this absence of line or form has the effect of rendering language obsolete. It thus filters out the ego (like the ego readers will be preparing a response to my post with) and leaves the viewer with nothing but a raw emotional response.
With that established, we can marvel at the oddity of our primal emotive composition, begging quetions: why does a combination of this colour and that hue evoke melancholy? How does this block of color on top of that one evince elation? To have direct evidence that color has an effect on emotion then has fundamental application in the design of everything else - not just art but design, decor, fashion, furniture, landscaping, civil engineering etc
it really is fascinating to anyone with an interest in exploring the deeper aspect of our nature, especially for the utility of neutralising the 'unborn chicken noises' in our heads
when you buy a rothko for $100M your friends do not assume you have good taste. they assume you have too much money.
The world is made up of sheeple.
The Emmy/Grammy bosses tell you what is good.....and we go buy it, or watch it, or listen to it....then we too say it's good.
America's got Talent VIPS present us with their list...we buy it.
Goons in the Art world tell us what is and isn't art....and we buy what they endorse.
We are told what is or is not in fashion...and we buy it, or archive it in our closet according to our instructions.
We listen to the news so we can be told what is a hot topic....since we (the sheeple) have no freaking clue what we should really be focusing on.
it's a never ending propoganda blitz.
Perhaps this is more comprehensible to ya...
Start here: http://www.frontiernet.net/~jimbot/marquetrythumbs.htm
Uh, that's a dude with manboobs.
You fag.
I am Chumbawamba.
Damn you froze, now i have to watch the whole Lebowski again.....
loled hard, also at the original comment.
These two pieces are really the ultimate example of art snobbery. This guy paints big blocks of color with a special genius that eludes all other painters of big blocks of color? Or is this the first douche that tried to pass bollocks like this off as art? It's painted with EBE blood? It's almost worth researching, but screw it, too douchey.
You sir, are a cretin - I suggest you look at more of Picasso's work. Anyone can draw anatomically correct people (even Picasso!), but hardly anyone could CREATE what he painted!
My 10 year old draws stuff from HALO better and cooler than this crap.
"Holy smokes! Except for the Van Gogh and Monet, those are worth approximately one squirt of piss."
I'd say you are about half a squirt high.
blotched Ukrainian flag. And Ukraine isn't even really a country
It may be totally coincidental that it matches the colors of the Ukraine flag. It seems Ukraine was intended to be a second home for the Chosenites, but those darn Rooskies have disrupted that plan.
That's one helluva sales job.
There is only one. Anything else would be a copy.
I put a similar value on myself for the same reason but it is not universally accepted...I was offered $5 yesterday, but I think that was to leave.
@ 'Skateboarder':
"Y'all missing the point of No. 10 and Yellow and Blue. The art is in convincing someone that a yellow and a blue stripe is worth $40M"
I knew someone who bought a 'Pet Rock' once. Paid actual money for it, retail. Said it wasn't 'stupid', it was 'ART'. Same person paid a hundred bucks for a pair of Nikes. They found him in an alley, bled out, in South Central (fully clothed, except for shoes). I guess the 'Swoosh' (@T.M.) was worth the price of a human life.
A rose, by any other name, (in a pile of shit), would smell as bad.
The Mark Rothko pieces for those prices?
Time to bring out some Dire Straits: In the Gallery
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wefT_t2lHU
whats the point of the fat bitch ?
Is that Jannet Yellen in retirement ?
Actually, back in those days a women resembling this may have had some edgy avant garde appeal. Now I just passed her two twins on the way to 7-11 for coffee.
Miffed
Back in those day's fat means money, go figure
Today anorexia means money, no figure
No, actually.
That's Janet Yellen's publicity still that her agent put out to get her the job. If you wanna work in that town, you gotta be willing to show some skin.
$800 million for these works? Nope.
I would rather have a few million in contemporary blown glass from the likes of Dale Chihuly
http://bit.ly/1EI3by3
Or Lino Tagliapietra
http://bit.ly/1H5FHn8
On the other hand, I can't put these in a tube and carry them across a border...
WOW, thanks for the links.
I had a Chihuly once. One day it fell off of the shelf it was on and broke into about 500 pieces.
I was delighted of course because instead of having one Chihuly, I then had 500 Chihulys.
Unfortunately, only one of them was signed.
Never too late to know: Modern Art was CIA "Weapon"
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-weapon-157880...
Those links show true artistry in sculpture. Thanks.
I'd give $19.50 for the Van Gogh, or maybe $38.95 for the Monet (they actually show some rudimentary talent). Hell, Herr Hitler was better...
The other stuff? IF I was on tripping on acid AND shrooms AND PCP (with a couple of six packs down and a few Thai sticks through the ol' bong), I MIGHT think that the others were 'not worth a fuck' (quite a bit higher of an opinion as I have of them now).
ART imitates LIFE, not 'psychotic episodes'. A TRUE artist makes art out of the appreciation of nature and the sheer enjoyment of it; NOT 'to make money'. If he or she is rewarded with monetary gain, it is only a show of appreciation...
Try finding the Huntington Library and Art Gallery (San Marino, CA.) on the internet. I used to visit there every year for a while in the 1970's. Spectacular art, in painting, horticulture, sculpture, architecture, textiles, furniture, and all the finer things. They had the original 'Blue Boy' painting...
http://www.huntington.org/
Beautiful stuff! Now, check out what can be done with hot, colored wax... http://www.deviantart.com/art/Into-the-Sun-Encaustic-101790749
Most (if not all) of Mark Rothko's art is about subtle color transitions...
it's still not worth 40+ million.
LMFAO. You mean the blotchiness that comes from knocking them out in 5 minutes? It's what my kitchen looked like before I did the 2nd coat.
In the $46.5 million price tag.
in his bank account.
....OR #3?
Same "artist".
Number 3 is the depiction of the annuaki tall people. You can see these illustrations on the 100 swiss franc. Same thing.
Number 7 is a naked fat bitch where going to the corner store to buy booze to get drunk, especially if you expected to try to mount a big blubber of fat.
I guess I don't appreciate art much...
Gadamit! I need a picture of Mohammed and a quart of Obama's piss!
I am sure to make a cool $40,000,000
Yuk...
“Benefits Supervisor Resting,” is exactly what I wanted hanging above my sofa. Really brings the room together. Totaly worth the $56.2 million I paid for it.
'Benefits Supervisor Resting' looks like 'People of WalMart' videos.
Perhaps the buyer needs to lose some, or a lot of, weight and bought it as a really expensive motivational tool.
I still love the title of the painting most of all.
If you left the Rothko by the side of the road. It would still be there the next day.
I would'nt even hang it in my loo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiZEVeGtAo4
The first Rothko looks like buttcheeks. Most of the others looks like some sort of hi-falutin' soft porn. My 5-year-old can do the Picasso Mona Lisa with crayons and the Warhol with a stamp kit. The Van Gogh isn't bad but I'm a sucker for pictures that are discernable. Disclosure: I am invested in paintings of dogs playing cards, and velvet Jesus's.
Don't forget about Zeppelin blacklight posters.
I generally show interest in anything with Bruce Lee as well, preferably from his "holding nunchucks" period.
Park, could I interest you in a velvet Elvis painting from Mexico?
I went long on 'Lava Lamps' and flowers sold at the intersections by the Moonies. And 'Etch-a-sketches'.
'I don't care if it rains or freezes, long as I got my 'Plastic Jesus', sittin' on the dashboard of my car...'
A little 'Cool hand Luke':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHf7TD4qwjk
wow! for a second there i thought the title said Tarp. time to go weeding.
Pablo Picasso by Modern Lovers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc2iLAubras
#3: Mark Rothko “No. 10,” $81.9 million
Hillary's kankle
Most of that shit is shit. The Van Gogh and the Monet are nice but I despise modern art in general. See this article from a little while back: Modern art was CIA 'weapon'
from the link:
For decades in art circles it was either a rumour or a joke, but now it is confirmed as a fact. The Central Intelligence Agency used American modern art - including the works of such artists as Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko - as a weapon in the Cold War. In the manner of a Renaissance prince - except that it acted secretly - the CIA fostered and promoted American Abstract Expressionist painting around the world for more than 20 years.
...
Guys playing in stocks should absolutely LOVE this shit. It is all about perception, about selling something absolutely worthless for millions of dollars, not because it is well done or even attractive, but simply because its expensive, everyone KNOWS its expensive and assumes that someone else will be willing to pay even more. Anybody interested in some Uber stock???
Mark Rothko is laughing all the way to the bank. Who buys this shit?
The best/worst of these Modern Art cocksuckers was
Marcel Duchamp in 1917 the SOB took a urinal signed his name to it and dubbed it "Fountain" Pure fucking alchemy! turning shit into gold
Even worse is how the "art" critics think it's great: "The work [Fountain] is regarded by art historians and theorists of the avant-garde, such as Peter Bürger, as a major landmark in 20th-century art. 17 replicas commissioned by Duchamp in the 1960s now exist" What kind of degenerate could say something like that with a straight face? I guess he must be getting paid a shit-ton of fiat
And how many have made some really big bucks from this compared to Tesla stock? Pot calling the kettle black? Or is it that everyone disparages its apparent stupidity simply because they can't buy it on margin.
I dunno, tough comparison between Tesla stock and Modern Art
I view it as similar to the idea of the "wealth effect"
. Namely it's not about actual conditions but what the average person believes the conditions are, this is a situation that's ripe for manipulation via propaganda, public relations, advertizing and deliberate use of logical fallacies (ok that's really 4 ways of saying the same thing)
When art "experts" say a Mark Rothko painting (that looks like a dude using a paint roller on a ceiling) is a work of genius people believe the hype and then they buy it, then the prices go up.
At least a Tesla functions as a car, albeit a bit pricey and not as functional as a used Porsche or BMW as a sports car IMHO. The propaganda I associate with Tesla is the global warming hype and the idea of absolving one's guilty conscience because you believe that Chevy Suburban you used to own was destroying the planet. Tesla was partially riding that wave
I'm talking stocks. At best, pieces of paper that people buy and sell but do nothing. Can maybe frame and admire them but I don't think anyone holds them long enough to even print, much less frame.
Can't fix stupid! People with more money than sense...That $800MM would have gone a long way to help out some po' folks...but then the world needs ditch diggers too eh?
I always thought 'art' was nothing but bullshit for foppish rich fools.
The Joker says it best: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyEs0ZSsAh0
Rothko is a dead jew. I see now...
#6: Lucian Freud, “Benefits Supervisor Resting,” $56.2 million
Yellen passed out on the couch
the name is pretty funny. At least Freud had a sense of humor.
The woman in the painting was actually a benefits supervisor
Yes, that she did.
Rich people can be the dumbest of all. Brainwashed and chased away from precious metals, they have to resort to trendy, elitist trash-Art to protect their tons of easy cash. They had better hope that their 'treasures' don't go out of style so fast they can't unload them in time.
Hats is off to ol' Yeller. They really do have more than they know what to do with.
$46.5 mil for Yellow and blue? WTF My kindergartner paints like that. Fucking amazing.
I clearly see one of the spies from Spy VS Spy in the first Picasso. Which explains a lot because these people are MAD spending that kind of fiat on this stuff
Donate a pic a year to charity, and you have a comp for the tax write-off.....
I suppose NYC Skyscraper People love this pompous shit, or hedge fund guys that live in CT and keep their mistress comfy in Greenwich.
When you see real paintings done by the masters you realize just what dogshit this stuff really is. That Van Gogh isn't bad. But I'd rather spend a few bucks on redoing the atrocious torpedo VFX in The Hunt For Red October and funnel the millions to one hell of a getaway plan.
extra-border cash transfer mechanism
Potentially, and also a way to protect wealth over time. I think FOFOA makes the point that high-end collectibles, whether fine art or Ferraris, are like casino markers. They're a way for the .01% to stash away big money, secure in the knowledge that another member of the .01% will buy it back from them at a profit sometime in the future.
barbaric relics all
What can you say...titties sell.
I don't know art, but I know what I hate.
A fool and his money are soon parted.
A fool and his money are soon partying.
Fools
I see black and blue.
http://slopeofhope.com/2015/05/this-just-sold-for-37100000.html
A Gauguin's "When Will You Marry?", broke the previous record February 2015 almost $300 MM. I'm going to have a copy of it painted in China and shipped. Matches the curtains. You can get them done to look just like the original, $50-100 USD, and spend the rest of the $299,999,900 MM on furniture. That's the smart play.
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/feb/07/paul-gauguins-when-w...
I was at the MOMA and saw the Cy Twombly exhibit...stunning (and not in a good way)
Here's "Poems to the Sea"
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/57/88/57/578857451ff321a48f4cf...
Sold for $21.7 Million in 2013
#10? This is why: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9ialIqaGDg Where do you think that they got the idea from to invade Ukraine? Duh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9ialIqaGDg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9ialIqaGDg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9ialIqaGDg
Privately controlled banks being legally able to make the public "money" supply out of nothing as debts transforms the values of everything into FETISHES.
Well said! Concise, too. :)
Here's an older lineup of artworks. There must be almost a QE worth of art in there...
I love Picasso... There's brilliance to his art.
This other shit? Alberto Giacometti, “L’Homme au Doigt,” $141.3 million WTF?
I've got a bronzed turd that looks like Mr. Hankey - South Park, circa 2009.
I appreciate Picasso but I'd never pay any money for one of his paintings even if I was a billionaire. I can create my own art I like better.
I was paid $5000 for one of my works in High School that won the top prize at the state art show. Some state congressman bought it. It didn't take me very long and he saw something in it that he liked.
Creating art that ends up being worth a lot of money is mostly luck and you don't get to enjoy the spoils because 99% of the time they aren't worth anything until you're dead.
I know I have products sitting in millions of people's homes making their lives better. I like knowing that far more than the one guy who liked a drawing I did.
I enjoy Monet, Matisse, Van Gogh, Gauguin and many others. That turd with pointed fingers and the swatch of two toned fabric, not so much.
I have something from Picasso hanging on my office wall. Never occurred to me that it might be worth something. Maybe I should make inquiries...
All crap except for this:
#8: Claude Monet, “Nympheas,” $54 million
#5: Vincent Van Gogh, “L’Allée des Alyscamps,” $66.3 million
Insane art prices are a historical top marker from my memory.
Agree. I could've made a much more inane (and higher priced) list.
Where's Barnett Newman?
I could paint those...
Apart from the Van Gogh and Monet, it's all very expensive fuel. Looks like it should burn well, though.
The reason why they do it is to be able to flaunt that they can do it. That they have so much money they don't care what they spend because it will reappear the next time a buyout rumor is floated.
Most of it is Chinese money.....so I guess its some sort of refund for the West....
I see jibberish, the hideous nude, simple mindedness, but no art. I do not believe that the claimed bid prices are ever paid, unless is by an exchange of checks. http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2009/09/the-plot-against-art-part-1/
I guess it is just pieces of paper traded for a thicker piece of paper with paint on it. If we ever lose power for a year, we'll see how valuable these 'art' pieces are then.
I got a 5 million deutsche mark bill. May I buy your Rothko?
I have a Zimbabwe 0ne Hundred Trillion dollar bill, signed by Ron Paul. I think I'll keep it, though (it's fare more artistic than a 'Rothko').
https://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=AwrTcXVtYlVVkpwAL9gunIl...
almost all popular, famous modern art is a product of a marketing campaign.
I can buy a playboy for 8 bucks, that has plenty more tits than all of those put together. Oh, and yellow and blue paint costs fare less than 40 million. Fucking seriously, who can't paint a blue stripe on a yellow canvas? Fucking retards.
Rothko et al are the biggest trolls in human history. Aside of course from the guy(s?) who 'compiled' the bible and made up dragons with the help of whale bones.
I'm going to paint myself a Rothko. Maybe I'll call it 'The Blank"
Perfect method to hide the printing without causing general inflation. A big, fat, fiat resevoir that doesn't affect the unwashed masses buying boxes of Tide.
Holy crap on cracker, my 3 year-old niece's artwork must be worth 37 billion dollars.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/art-forgery-scandal-ringlead...
but then again:
Van Gogh doomed his sunflowers by adding white pigments to yellow paintWhite powders that van Gogh added to brighten the yellows of his sunflowers triggered a reaction that turns the paint brown.
When Vincent van Gogh moved to the south of France in the late 1880s, he began to paint sunflowers in vibrant chrome yellow. But even before his untimely death, some of his paintings had lost their sheen and started to turn brown. White pigments based on sulphates were mixed into the yellow paint."By mixing these white powders in, van Gogh intended to make a lighter yellow paint, but through this effect, nature darkens it. While he wanted to show a light, pale and delicate yellow, it instead becomes a darker, brownish yellow,"
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2011/feb/14/van-gogh-sunflowers-yello...
In other words, a golden yellow had turned to a shitty brown making Van Gogh a kind of " reverse Alchemist."
WR;)
No. 10 is our symbol for democracy and freedom and peace, the Ukrainian flag. Worth 5 billion and counting.
Comic Book Art is low compared to this stuff. Thats what Id buy. You can get an amazing Kirby, Romita or Ditko's from the 1960's for really great prices in comparison with most high brow art. I track the comic book art market and its is growing in terms of appreciation at like 20% annually. No joke !!!! People love their superheroes.
https://www.google.com/search?q=kirby+romita+ditko+original+art&biw=1242...
With the exception of the van Gogh and Monet, if I didn;t know the others were by famous artists and worth millions, I don't think I'd pay more than $5 at a garage sale for maybe two of them, and most I wouldn't for nothing or hang up on my wall if someone paid me.