Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/10/22/banksys-show-me-the-monet-painting-sells-for-nearly-10-million.html
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Does the value of art ever reach a zenith? Or does it just keep going up forever? Is there a ‘Banksy bubble’, thats due to burst one of these days/years/decades?
Or once a painting/sculpture/other work has sold for a particularly value, is it more or less guaranteed to never lose that value? How much does an actiual Monet go for, these days?
I actually owned one of Banksy’s early screenprints and decided to sell it last year. Mostly because it helped us (slightly) to buy a house, but also partly because I found myself a bit embarrassed at owning it. I first had it because I was a fan of his stencilling technique in the early days and thought they were a lot of fun, but at these values they’ve become luxury items traded between the super-rich. It didn’t look right on our wall any more.
I don’t think his work is ‘bad’, by any means, but I do fear the values are getting a bit silly. Perhaps it’s all part of the joke.
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@pesco, is the name of the painting “Show Me the Monet” or “Show Me the Money”, it’s listed both ways in the article…
(ETA: Mods, please feel free to delete this message when/if it gets looked at… I just noticed it and wanted to mention it in kindness…)
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Ugh. I’m so sick of Banksy.
Since his work is so anti capitalist, I wonder if there is anything he can do to ex post facto devalue them.
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Maybe build in a shredder.
May I propose that it become custom (or law, or contractual) that the artist receives 10% of the proceeds upon the work’s resale. A re-licensing fee. If the artist is dead and no copyright lives on, the fee could go to a foundation.
While the wild ideas are flowing, perhaps the above noted foundation could sponsor a pension fund for career artists. The artists could qualify much like an application for a grant and should kick in half(?) of the capital. Perhaps governments could back it and make it defined benefit with health care and life insurance options.
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Every other paper is calling it “Show me the Monet”, and that’s an extremely Banksy title so I have no doubt that “Show me the Money” is a typo.
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What goes up must come down*
*unless artificially and indefinitely propped up by super-rich speculators that have nowhere else to entomb their money than in tangible creative works that they’ve been told would make a “really smart investment”.
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The high end art market isn’t about quality, it’s about finding a place to hide your money that can be transported across international borders. In fact the quality really doesn’t matter, all you need is to make sure the artist’s name is recognizable so you’ll be able to sell it when you need the money again.
Stuff like this is what makes the idea of a wealth tax so hard to implement. What’s the stored value of a Banksy? You don’t know until you try to sell it. Don’t think you’ll be able to go “oh, I’ll just use what they paid for it”, because then the owner will sell it to a trust for $100. And even if this is technically against the law it requires a dedicated team of accountants correlating disparate and fragmented records to discover the shenanigans. Hell, if the rich bastard is cheeky enough he’ll write off the purchase price of the painting as a loss on his taxes when he sells it. The IRS doesn’t have the staff to find stuff like this, years of cutbacks in the enforcement arm by Republicans have seen to it.
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I’ve no idea if they would work, but…
- Flood their own market with identical versions that they sell for much less?
- Gift loads of their own work to incredibly unpopular - I mean, really REALLY awful - people?
- Get Pest Control to start randomly authenticating every shitty copy out there?
- Officially reveal their identity?
- All of the above?
…It would be an odd move, certainly.
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What if Banksy sold works at markets for PartyChain Points or whatever the hideous merit score (also on call for abusing Uighur) has attained? A little store of self-deprecating humor, a little hard to move, a little making plant-based diets look grand on WeChat media (if that passes as Patriotically nastily invasive?)
Mm, gonna skin this 10 kg. invasive ryegrass. Oh yeah.
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Fairly certain the media attention made that one more expensive
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I remember reading that Banksy doesn’t even paint most of his paintings, just supervises others who do the work. Good work if you can get it.
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