Posted on 05/30/2016 6:24:20 AM PDT by Republicanprofessor
The drab free port zone near the Geneva city center, a compound of blocky gray and vanilla warehouses surrounded by train tracks, roads and a barbed-wire fence, looks like the kind of place where beauty goes to die. But within its walls, crated or sealed cheek by jowl in cramped storage vaults, are more than a million of some of the most exquisite artworks ever made.
Treasures from the glory days of ancient Rome. Museum-quality paintings by old masters. An estimated 1,000 works by Picasso.
As the price of art has skyrocketed, perhaps nothing illustrates the art-as-bullion approach to contemporary collecting habits more than the proliferation of warehouses like this one, where masterpieces are increasingly being tucked away by owners more interested in seeing them appreciate than hanging on walls.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
This is happening because governments have proven themselves untrustworthy when it comes to maintaining the “value” of fiat currency. They continue to print more and more of it. Why is it “not moral” to find something, anything, that can be expected to maintain or even appreciate in value and lock it away for the time when fiat currency collapses into valueless paper? The art will then be taken out and traded again for other commodities. It will again be visible to the public. But in the meantime there are countless copies the public can gaze on. As far as the original goes, we live in a world of private property. What is immoral about trying to maintain your financial status by keeping your private property safe and secure behind locked doors?
I was driving past one day with a friend who told me of another friend hired to replace sections of 4-rail oak fence @$107 per section (4 oak boards and post which total cost about $23 at the time). It was being paid by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, because it's an "old farm". I guess that is how millionaires keep their $millions!
The farm, site of a large annual horse auction/sale, was for sale at $70 million asking price, which I am sure didn't include horses or art!
BTW, here is the runway pic!
Go on, Airnav and check out FL37 and see my runway.
A little late starting your turn onto final. I think you need to go around.
Paul Mellon has been dead for years. His wife Bunny died a couple of years ago and the property is gradually being sold off in pieces, with most of the best parcels now gone.
Did you ever go to the horse sales? $millions on the hoof there, as well!
How many Picassos for a loaf of bread and a roll of toilet paper in Venezuela right now? I think art is a good holder of value against the continual grinding of inflation, but would be worthless in a hyperinflationary collapse. Also remember that gains in both art and gold are taxed as at a higher rate rather than capital gains so you get hit with high taxes for your attempt to fight inflation.
“How many Picassos for a loaf of bread and a roll of toilet paper in Venezuela right now?”
Venezuela has been reduced to a pre-industrial culture but with guns and aircraft. They are back to barter. Actually, they are worse off than a culture that never knew fiat money and, as a result, stayed stable. What we see in Venezuela is end-stage socialism.
However, there are always rich, powerful people (drug dealers, well-placed politicians and people entrusted with warehouse keys) with plenty of whatever today’s currency is. They will trade for art if only to show how rich they are.
But, you are correct. An economy must be well on the way to returning to health before people with art can cash in. (Cash-in, or perhaps fiat-in, is the perfect phrase.)
No, never went to the horse sales. I went to a couple of the stable tours, though. Very impressive! I hate to see these old, huge estates being hacked up, but understand that that there aren’t many buyers for them in toto. I am looking at Paul Mellon’s autobiography, “Reflections in a Silver Spoon” as I type this (It’s raising my computer monitor so it’s at the same level as the others :-)). It was a pretty interesting read. He freely admits that his only real accomplishment in life was being the son of a really rich guy (Andrew Mellon). He wasn’t at all interested in becoming involved in business and was basically a bon vivant. He gets huge credit for starting the National Gallery of Art and donating much of his collection to it, however.
Friend told the story that one day, Paul asked his (male) secretary to get on the phone and invite 50 people with spouses/guests to a BBQ, but they had to be there before 5pm. He flew them to Texas in his 727!
I'd say that is the "good life"!
Do you remember that Bunny Mellon was mixed up in the John Edwards babydaddy affair? Bunny Mellon, who was 90+ at the time, contributed heavily to Edward’s campaign because she thought he was handsome and could be the next John Kennedy. When the Rielle Hunter story broke, Edwards sent his lackey to Upperville to meet with Bunny and ask for more money so Edwards could pay off Hunter (he told Bunny it was a campaign contribution). Bunny gave him the money. Bunny later got subpoenaed to give testimony when the Justice Department was investigating Edwards. After Bunny died Edwards and his daughter went up to the funeral and Bunny’s family wouldn’t let them in. LOL!
I believe it. Damn secretary somehow left my name off the list! LOL
If they obtained it legally, it is their stuff. If not legally, then it should go to the rightful owner. I’m free market even if I don’t like the fact nobody will see these paintings and other works of art for decades. If I own a painting, I should be able to do with it what I will.
Ooooor - do a deep swoop and pull up to put some fum into it....
Been on a twin engine where the pilot (who let me sit in the co-pilot seat because I was the only passenger, and military, on a short hop to a bigger airfield during an assignment change) and when we got to the next airfield, he seemed a bit high for approach and he did the "rollercoaster" approach. Brightened up my day.
Some farmer could't instill the farming spirit into his kids he also wanted to educate in the big city
Water and oil ... they just don't mix
Sometimes “farming spirit” just isn’t enough in an age of megafarms.
I know a young fellow from downstate Illinois, grew up on a farm in a community barely larger than the dot representing it on the map. He openly told me that his parents required him to go to college...they’re prescient enough to see they can’t carry their small farm forward another generation. So, he’s moving forward as a civil engineer.
This doesn’t stop with artwork...I know of a fellow in Michigan’s UP that owns a railroad, and he has a load of RARE locomotives and passenger cars squirreled away in a former shop building, forbidden to the public. Though in this case he has some legitimate reasons for his attitude (past theft), it’s the same situation...his stuff, his rules.
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