And scarcity, especially of anything with cultural value, gives prestige/significance to whoever owns it. Like rich people buying cool old but relatively useless cars. It’s just a cool think to have that everyone else will think is cool too. Most don’t care about its appreciation. Some may buy it for that purpose, but not all.
Valuable art pieces also confers prestige on any institutions that hold them. Everyone can oggle at how much the art is worth and assume this must be one of the best museums in the world.
Think of it like buying an overpriced but cool pair of limited edition shoes (Yeezy’s or whatever). Most people will wear them to show them off, but some people will never take them out of the box because they know in the future other people who want to wear them to show them off will pay even more for them. With art, showing it off doesn’t depreciate it so it’s like having LE shoes that never wear out.
It can’t just be scarcity. People have to want the art for some other reason for it to have that value. I can create an equally scarce piece of art by doing one painting, signing my name to it and never doing painting again. Picasso’s are valuable because they are great, famous for their greatness and scarce meaning it’s a big significant prestigious thing to own one.
And scarcity, especially of anything with cultural value, gives prestige/significance to whoever owns it. Like rich people buying cool old but relatively useless cars. It’s just a cool think to have that everyone else will think is cool too. Most don’t care about its appreciation. Some may buy it for that purpose, but not all.
Valuable art pieces also confers prestige on any institutions that hold them. Everyone can oggle at how much the art is worth and assume this must be one of the best museums in the world.
Think of it like buying an overpriced but cool pair of limited edition shoes (Yeezy’s or whatever). Most people will wear them to show them off, but some people will never take them out of the box because they know in the future other people who want to wear them to show them off will pay even more for them. With art, showing it off doesn’t depreciate it so it’s like having LE shoes that never wear out.
It can’t just be scarcity. People have to want the art for some other reason for it to have that value. I can create an equally scarce piece of art by doing one painting, signing my name to it and never doing painting again. Picasso’s are valuable because they are great, famous for their greatness and scarce meaning it’s a big significant prestigious thing to own one.