The Storm Hits the Art Market • Hacker News Board

Re: The Storm Hits the Art Market

#111

Post by non_aligned » Tue, Sep 09, 2025, 4:52 AM UTC

calebm wrote: post #106

I’ve been trying to break into the art market as a complete outsider for the last year and a half (doing mathy lenticular holograms). What I have seen has stunned me - the level of groupthink and copying whatever the popular trends are and making up pretentious language to sound sophisticated is wild. And often the actual art is just ugly. I have found that the higher priced galleries seem to sell worse art. The empe…

Collecting big-ticket art is a weird hobby in that it's very passive. For most collectibles, you're supposed to go to garage sales, scout eBay, walk around with a metal detector, or even dumpster-dive. And if you find something unfamiliar, you form a hypothesis, do research, share your findings... and maybe get other folks excited about your find. It's all very make-your-own-adventure.

For mainstream "rich person" art, all of this is outsourced. Curators discover the artist, promote the work, and set the price. Glossy trade journals tells you what the artwork means and how to talk about it to others in a way that's more erudite than any thoughts you can form on your own. Your function, really, is just to show up with money and then hang the piece.

Re: The Storm Hits the Art Market

#112

Post by randmeerkat » Tue, Sep 09, 2025, 4:56 AM UTC

doctorpangloss wrote: post #107

EGreg wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2022 is also when the wars in Ukraine and Gaza started in earnest When wars are going on, most people in affected countries are thinking about heavier things than going to an art exhibit and boosting their collections. 2020 and 2021 was when the pandemic happened. Businesses started feeling the crunch all over the world from the lockdowns. Supply chains got bullwhipped. People weren’t exactly interested in going to b…

The public is not conscious of how big of a deal the war in Ukraine is.

> The public is not conscious of how big of a deal the war in Ukraine is.

My sincerest desire is that there’s a peaceful resolution to this conflict before they’re forced to realize it.

Re: The Storm Hits the Art Market

#113

Post by randmeerkat » Tue, Sep 09, 2025, 4:58 AM UTC

monero-xmr wrote: post #104

dfxm12 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Collectors are different from speculators or investors. Collectors want something for personal reasons, whatever they are. Speculators are just trying to buy low and sell high. Investing has overlap with speculating, but it's generally more long term. I think this is important to understand when considering buying collectables. You have to know the different types of people you're bidding against, whether it's an out…

Here's a rembrandt for sale: https://www.masterworksfineart.com/artists/rembrandt/etching... No idea the price, but I would much prefer this to a Charizard pokemon card!

This is such a beautiful piece. How did you learn about it? How does one get further into this world?

Re: The Storm Hits the Art Market

#114

Post by qaq » Tue, Sep 09, 2025, 5:04 AM UTC

anonymars wrote: post #94

CydeWeys wrote: post #58

I'm amazed that the article doesn't discuss the end of ZIRP. The bursting of the art market bubble in mid 2022 coincides exactly with when interest rates started rising following the 'transitory' inflation caused by pandemic relief measures. This was also the same time that we started seeing hiring freezes in tech, the bursting of the luxury watch bubble, etc. It's all tied together, and has the same root cause: It s…

Yes and no - 2022 also drastically changed taxation of software development https://www.resourcefulfinancepro.com/news/irs-section-174-c...

Tech firms lobbied this change because they care about EBITA it makes their numbers look better

Re: The Storm Hits the Art Market

#115

Post by non_aligned » Tue, Sep 09, 2025, 5:10 AM UTC

CydeWeys wrote: post #58

I'm amazed that the article doesn't discuss the end of ZIRP. The bursting of the art market bubble in mid 2022 coincides exactly with when interest rates started rising following the 'transitory' inflation caused by pandemic relief measures. This was also the same time that we started seeing hiring freezes in tech, the bursting of the luxury watch bubble, etc. It's all tied together, and has the same root cause: It s…

> I'm amazed that the article doesn't discuss the end of ZIRP.

I'm not sure this particular phenomenon can be explained this way. For example, antiques auctions are doing quite well, with prices rising quite briskly year after year. There's still plenty of money chasing the kinds of long-term investments you can hold in your hand, put on a shelf, and show to your friends.

Jewelry sales are doing fine too.

There are other reasons why going to a fancy gallery in London to buy some decor for your mansion just isn't as enticing as it used to be a decade or two decades ago.

Re: The Storm Hits the Art Market

#116

Post by YeahThisIsMe » Tue, Sep 09, 2025, 5:11 AM UTC

randmeerkat wrote: post #112

doctorpangloss wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The public is not conscious of how big of a deal the war in Ukraine is.

> The public is not conscious of how big of a deal the war in Ukraine is. My sincerest desire is that there’s a peaceful resolution to this conflict before they’re forced to realize it.

It's not a "conflict" and there will not be a peaceful resolution of it.

Re: The Storm Hits the Art Market

#117

Post by UltraSane » Tue, Sep 09, 2025, 5:17 AM UTC

SchemaLoad wrote: post #80

UltraSane wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NFTs make more sense as digital signatures.

They don't even make sense there. Since you can digitally sign things without blockchains or NFTs.

The blockchain acts like timestamp proving the digital data existed prior to when the block with the hash was mined.

Re: The Storm Hits the Art Market

#118

Post by cyberax » Tue, Sep 09, 2025, 5:23 AM UTC

CydeWeys wrote: post #58

I'm amazed that the article doesn't discuss the end of ZIRP. The bursting of the art market bubble in mid 2022 coincides exactly with when interest rates started rising following the 'transitory' inflation caused by pandemic relief measures. This was also the same time that we started seeing hiring freezes in tech, the bursting of the luxury watch bubble, etc. It's all tied together, and has the same root cause: It s…

> I'm amazed that the article doesn't discuss the end of ZIRP.

There's a bigger culprit: NFTs. They sucked away a huge portion of art spending, with a promise of a fungible growth asset that you can just sell as needed. Art has always been considered a safe long-term investment (along with a means of conspicuous consumption), but it has always been non-liquid.

Re: The Storm Hits the Art Market

#119

Post by watwut » Tue, Sep 09, 2025, 5:24 AM UTC

randmeerkat wrote: post #112

doctorpangloss wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The public is not conscious of how big of a deal the war in Ukraine is.

> The public is not conscious of how big of a deal the war in Ukraine is. My sincerest desire is that there’s a peaceful resolution to this conflict before they’re forced to realize it.

[flagged]

Re: The Storm Hits the Art Market

#120

Post by Terr_ » Tue, Sep 09, 2025, 5:26 AM UTC

cyberax wrote: post #118

CydeWeys wrote: post #58

I'm amazed that the article doesn't discuss the end of ZIRP. The bursting of the art market bubble in mid 2022 coincides exactly with when interest rates started rising following the 'transitory' inflation caused by pandemic relief measures. This was also the same time that we started seeing hiring freezes in tech, the bursting of the luxury watch bubble, etc. It's all tied together, and has the same root cause: It s…

> I'm amazed that the article doesn't discuss the end of ZIRP. There's a bigger culprit: NFTs. They sucked away a huge portion of art spending, with a promise of a fungible growth asset that you can just sell as needed. Art has always been considered a safe long-term investment (along with a means of conspicuous consumption), but it has always been non-liquid.

I think that art-to-NFT flow is not really about storing value long-term, but about money laundering.

To be more specific, the main purpose of the "object" is to provide plausible-deniability for one half of an exchange where the other half can't be shown because it's illicit.