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Leonardo Da Vinci Painting Sells for $450.3M, Shattering Auction Records

nytimes.com

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Re: Leonardo Da Vinci Painting Sells for $450.3M, Shattering Auction Records

#131

Post by rootlocus »

speedplane wrote: post #121
joosters wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

except you can't do anything to enjoy equities hanging on your wall The buyers might not even get that benefit... there are billions of dollars worth of artworks sitting in storage in tax-efficient 'freeports': https://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21590353-ever-more-w...

I doubt the buyer would do that with this piece. It's too expensive and one-of-a-kind to stash away. If you're buying artwork just as an investment to stash away, you'd probably buy many much smaller pieces rather than a headline grabbing one. I'd bet that this will be hanging in someone's billionaire's living room somewhere (hopefully behind some protective glass). These guys have egos. Saying you own the most expen…

> Saying you own the most expensive piece of artwork ever gets you something that money can't buy (even though you did buy it).

"Saying you own the most expensive piece of artwork ever" is literary what money can buy.

Re: Leonardo Da Vinci Painting Sells for $450.3M, Shattering Auction Records

#133

Post by zxcmx »

speedplane wrote: post #122
dingaling wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An F-22 is, regardless of its function, one of the most complicated devices ever created by man. In that sense it is an example of the combined 'art' of the skills of many thousands of highly-skilled individuals. In past centuries cathedrals were hailed as the masterpieces of the skills of craftsmen.

F-22s are cool, but sadly, probably won't hold their value as well as a DaVinci.

Yeah the F-22 really is useless without a military industrial complex behind it. And a defense use. Sort of a parable about modern products really. Self driving cars with no maps, phones with no updates, no app store. Our best products are really infrastructure products, supported by a cast of thousands.

But the painting stands on its own and a decent pair of leather shoes will get you from a to b just as well as they did centuries ago.

If I remember rightly the most universal item of soldier's kit throughout all history was the spoon.

Re: Leonardo Da Vinci Painting Sells for $450.3M, Shattering Auction Records

#134

Post by csomar »

comboy wrote: post #17

Marketing wins everywhere. Paintings, IT, open source projects, startups, everything. It seems to be responsible for 90%+ value in worryingly many cases. It may be getting worse. I think in the next few years we will see rise of companies that help customers make decent choices that are not solely based on advertising. We have many user review based solutions but it just doesn't work with most things (not even touchi…

I don't think they are in the same market. Say I want to give you $100m. I tell you to buy a painting for $10m, then I buy it from you for $110. $10m cost for money laundering.

I'm not saying that money laundering is the ultimate business. But these paintings are like Bitcoin: they are traded actively by rich people.

The advertising/branding is required to give value to a certain item.

Re: Leonardo Da Vinci Painting Sells for $450.3M, Shattering Auction Records

#135

Post by mattmanser »

comboy wrote: post #17

Marketing wins everywhere. Paintings, IT, open source projects, startups, everything. It seems to be responsible for 90%+ value in worryingly many cases. It may be getting worse. I think in the next few years we will see rise of companies that help customers make decent choices that are not solely based on advertising. We have many user review based solutions but it just doesn't work with most things (not even touchi…

In the UK we have Which?[1], do you not have something like that in America? It used to be a magazine you subscribed to, but is now mainly online (as far as I remember).

It's a subscription service, I know people who subscribed for a bit when making a lot of purchases, like when they bought their first home.

[1] https://www.which.co.uk/

Re: Leonardo Da Vinci Painting Sells for $450.3M, Shattering Auction Records

#136

Post by saiya-jin »

elorant wrote: post #124
comboy wrote: post #17

Marketing wins everywhere. Paintings, IT, open source projects, startups, everything. It seems to be responsible for 90%+ value in worryingly many cases. It may be getting worse. I think in the next few years we will see rise of companies that help customers make decent choices that are not solely based on advertising. We have many user review based solutions but it just doesn't work with most things (not even touchi…

You don't seem to understand how the art world works. Buying art at this level has nothing to do with the work itself. It has everything to do with demonstrating power. Whoever bought that will have the best Leonardo work outside of museums. Art is a positional good, it shows that you have class and at this level nothing is as prestigious. Say you put that thing in a house or a museum, you can invite the Pope himself…

plus there is this little thing of art appreciation over time, which for Da Vinci is practically guaranteed. It's a damn good investment

Re: Leonardo Da Vinci Painting Sells for $450.3M, Shattering Auction Records

#137

Post by cjrp »

mattmanser wrote: post #135
comboy wrote: post #17

Marketing wins everywhere. Paintings, IT, open source projects, startups, everything. It seems to be responsible for 90%+ value in worryingly many cases. It may be getting worse. I think in the next few years we will see rise of companies that help customers make decent choices that are not solely based on advertising. We have many user review based solutions but it just doesn't work with most things (not even touchi…

In the UK we have Which?[1], do you not have something like that in America? It used to be a magazine you subscribed to, but is now mainly online (as far as I remember). It's a subscription service, I know people who subscribed for a bit when making a lot of purchases, like when they bought their first home. [1] https://www.which.co.uk/

I guess Wirecutter is the closest thing, although they make money from referrals (not sure if Which do), so that might influence their recommendations.

Re: Leonardo Da Vinci Painting Sells for $450.3M, Shattering Auction Records

#138

Post by mattmanser »

cjrp wrote: post #137
mattmanser wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK we have Which?[1], do you not have something like that in America? It used to be a magazine you subscribed to, but is now mainly online (as far as I remember). It's a subscription service, I know people who subscribed for a bit when making a lot of purchases, like when they bought their first home. [1] https://www.which.co.uk/

I guess Wirecutter is the closest thing, although they make money from referrals (not sure if Which do), so that might influence their recommendations.

Which? are a not-for-profit charity, consumer rights advocates as well as doing the reviews. I think the membership is the only income source, so all the reviews are behind a paywall.

More about them here:

https://www.which.co.uk/about-which/who-we-are

Re: Leonardo Da Vinci Painting Sells for $450.3M, Shattering Auction Records

#139

Post by saiya-jin »

dbkelly wrote: post #27

For anyone paying attention, the seller of the painting is Dmitry Rybolovlev. How did Rybolovlev amass so much money? Through pollution. His company Uralkali is listed as one of the top polluters in Russia. This is how externalities work: He keeps the profits, you (literally) eat the losses. Perhaps this detail is the biggest story here.

Well he is a typical russian arrogant oligarch asshole. Culprit in various murders, even served some jail time for it (of course not much compared to us peasants). It would be actually strange if any common good would ever come from such a person.

Re: Leonardo Da Vinci Painting Sells for $450.3M, Shattering Auction Records

#140

Post by [deleted] »

elorant wrote: post #124
comboy wrote: post #17

Marketing wins everywhere. Paintings, IT, open source projects, startups, everything. It seems to be responsible for 90%+ value in worryingly many cases. It may be getting worse. I think in the next few years we will see rise of companies that help customers make decent choices that are not solely based on advertising. We have many user review based solutions but it just doesn't work with most things (not even touchi…

You don't seem to understand how the art world works. Buying art at this level has nothing to do with the work itself. It has everything to do with demonstrating power. Whoever bought that will have the best Leonardo work outside of museums. Art is a positional good, it shows that you have class and at this level nothing is as prestigious. Say you put that thing in a house or a museum, you can invite the Pope himself…

[deleted]
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