Pair of Selfridges pyjamas, was £90 but yours for £1,200 Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Alan Yentob has been presenting an interesting series on BBC One recently and tonight's episode covered the modern art world.
It was amusing and interesting throughout
- how Galleries were "selecting" who was allowed to buy pictures and the price they would pay. A prestigious buyer added to the value of the artist
- how agents and existing owners would intercede at auctions if they saw works by an artist they had an interest in, were failing to meet a reserve, in attempt to prop up prices
- one leading New York art critic described 98% of the works on show as "Sh*t" and how prices had become detached from any form of reality (which is was supposed to be the job of the work by artists)
- prices had rocketed recently with pieces that would have been lucky to fetch $50k two years ago, now reaching $6m
- modern art prices matching and exceeding those of old masters
Part of the show featured Alan trying to buy a piece of modern art for himself within a budget of £5,000. Lots of the items he saw (easy to see where the 98% figure came from) were out of his price range. But even he laughed when presented with
- an bicycle tyre, which the artist would ride to Paris and then re-inflate with Paris air all for a bargain price of £3,000
- the accumulated mastheads from the Sun newspaper for a year which had been stuck onto a card, but with the "S" cut out to leave "un", available for £4,000
- a pair of pyjamas from Selfriges which had been folded by the artist in a special way and could be bought for £1,200
He ended up buying a painted ladder for £3,500, which apparently was a bargain.
And people claim we City boys are pulling a fast one - seriously Dahrling, its art! Still, at least the people being laid-off from the fixed income teams because of the credit crunch might find work in such a market.
posted by John Wilson @ 12:36 AM Permanent Link
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