Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/01/31/russian-billionaire-who-accused-sothebys-of-art-fraud-loses-his-lawsuit.html
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That sounds like a euphemism, doesn’t it? 
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He attracts shit?
No, sorry, that’s a fertilizer magnet.
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Flipping a painting for $44 million after just one day.
I’ve seen the Salvator, it’s stunning and a slightly disturbing picture with a genuine presence (even if it is increasingly likely it isn’t a Leonardo), but the fact it has been acquired by the hyper rich and disappeared is a tragedy.
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Billionaire, huh?
I really made the wrong career choices. No idea that shit was so valuable.
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I knew I should have gone into advertising.
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I wish I got screwed by making $323 million
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Of all tangible assets, art is probably the most arbitrarily valued. No wonder the high end art trade is so rife with shady financial shenanigans.
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It is “worth” what you can get the next tax-evader or money launderer to pay for it 
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Well, where else can you buy a $5 investment from a street-vendor art festival, trade it back and forth with your friends a few times for ever-increasing but arbitrary values, then declare it worth a $5,000,000 tax deduction? Heck, there are now investment schemes for investing in shares of a pool of “art,” which boast of a higher rate of return than anything you can get from a bank, all of which is driven by the need for ever more works that few, if any, have ever seen, that can be turned into said tax deductions once an arbitrary value has been achieved.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there were “museums” around that only exist to store and increase the value of art, complete with non-profit status and lots of trades with other museums to look legit, increasing shareholder value by lying about the value of its collection.
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Chemical fertilizer most likely, for which energy is the main input, not shit. The product is generic, so it’s not like he got rich off some kind of secret formula. Most likely a sweet heart deal with uncle Putin to buy gas at sub-market prices is the only competitive advantage he’s got.
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In Russia, the shit makes you.
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Isn’t this exactly how capitalism is supposed to work?
I thought the whole idea is you charge what the market will bear?
Although if he’d won this, could the person who bought the painting from him next, turn around and sue him for making a profit perceived to be too large?
That precedent would be a fun beast to unleash on companies regarding our post COVID inflation.
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Agreed. I know there are worse things to worry about, but as an artist, art hoarding as an investment makes me irrationally angry.
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They mostly keep this stuff in climate controlled vaults, unfortunately, but you’re not far from the mark.
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Everyone who has seen Tenet knows that the super rich keep their art canvas investments in storage facilities at airport freeports, so they don’t actually have to pay dues on them (or have to look at them).
.(meht ta kool ot evah ro) meht no seud yap ot evah yllautca t’nod yeht os ,stropeefF tropria ta seitilicaf egarots ni stnemtsevni savnac tra rieht peek hcir repus eht taht swonk teneT nees sah ohw enoyrevE
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He got into the potash sector when nobody else in Russia was interested. He then got out of the industry by selling his stake in Uralkali to three Putin-friendly oligarchs for $6.5 billion.
It’s what NFTs wish they were! Just invent value, then capture the value in the most advantageous and un-regulated way possible.
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Hoarding of things by collectors who have no intention of using, enjoying or sharing them grinds my gears as well - so I feel your pain.
In my case it is that I have a weakness for watches; there are a number of watches I would love, but the collectors who want nothing more than to say they have one - and never wear it - have pushed prices into the stratosphere; not only snapping up all the new ones, but in some cases forcing second-hand prices higher than retail!
There was a programme about model railways with James May many years ago where he went to an auction to buy a 1970s Hornby model locomotive in its original packaging. There were almost gasps of outrage when he had the temerity to actually play with it.
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