Does It Come Framed?
link Investors renew passion for modern masters | Art and design | The Observer.
Talk about expensive porn collection. Mind you Modigliani isn’t exactly run of the mill Guccione, so one can probably justify the slight premium over the Penthouse stuff. Actually, the portrait is rather demure given what passes as pulchritude these days.
As an explanation of the almost $69 million dollar price tag, not including taxes, a spokesman for Sotheby’s said:
“…It was a great night for Modigliani… that price represents over four times the price realised when it was sold at Sotheby’s in 1999,” a spokesman for the auction house said. Gerlis said she was not surprised by the new record, since no Modigliani nude had come under the hammer for seven years. “Nudes always sell well anyway, and this was a very pretty, almond-eyed lady,” she said…”
There you go. Nudity sells, we know that of course, but pretty and almond eyed were the definitive features that commanded such “gotta have itness”. Notice the portrait did not feature out sized bosoms or intricate tattoos, the hallmarks of beauty in today’s pop culture. This art sale may inspire women to go for the pretty, almond eyed look if only to enhance perception of value.
Of course, I’m the first to admit ignorance of the numismatic value of art or any appreciation of it whatsoever beyond the banal observation of whether I like it or not. As well, it’s hard to cast aspersions on anyone’s sanity if they choose to pay up to acquire some ‘valuable’ artifact like a baseball card or piece of pottery. In the case of rare works of art like the piece described here, that is not what’s at play. The purchase is made solely as an investment and considered to be a safe one at that. In the case of another old master, Henri Matisse, his works are characterized thusly:
“…a large bronze sculpture of a woman’s back by Matisse sold at Christie’s in New York for just under $49m (£30.2m), setting a new record for the French impressionist. “Matisse is a brand, and so is seen as safe,” said Gerlis. “It is much more likely to hold its value than some crumpled piece of paper by the latest popular new artist to catch someone’s eye…”
Safe! $49 or $69 million dollars spent on a piece of canvas with oil on it or bronze sculpture is considered safe!! Not real estate, not gold, not an ongoing business, but a one off piece of artwork! I’m not sure whether that says more about the shrewdness of the buyer or the relative stability of the world’s economies. This surely implies that compared to government bonds and securities, La Belle Romaine is a safer bet for preservation of capital. While we don’t know who the buyer is and in fact it may be an investment fund looking to decrease covariance in its holdings, at $69 million dollars, there had better be someone expected to pay much more than that down the road to achieve any kind of return. Otherwise, it’ll just be another bauble hanging in the foyer. But if investors at this level eschew all investments in favor of rare art, we may all be in trouble.