Sunday, November 17, 2013

Here's my question for those who say there is a "bubble" in the art market

What is the right price for the Bacon that sold for $142 million this week?

$127.41 million?

$93.8 million and forty three cents?

This isn't Snapchat or Twitter.  There's no P/E ratio to look at, or revenues, or any of the other metrics by which you can make claims about the "true" value of the asset in question.  There are no "fundamentals" when it comes to art.  As Peter Schjeldahl says, "any price—many millions, a buck fifty—paid for any work of art is absurd."  What makes this one any more or less absurd than any other?