[Eagle]

I completely agree. Just slapping a famous name on something doesn't justify outrageous prices.

Like all that matters is the prestige and status of owning it, the art itself often isn't even good.

Yes, those abstract squiggles or solid colors selling for fortunes? Come on now, that's nonsense.

Don't even get me started on modern art, any kid could make that stuff. It's all about appearances and money laundering.

They hype it as intellectual and complex, but seems like an emperor has no clothes situation.

The meaning people ascribe feels like such a stretch, rich people just trying to seem cultured and exclusive.

[mega-mind]

Like all that matters is the prestige and status of owning it, the art itself often isn't even good.

Yes, those abstract squiggles or solid colors selling for fortunes? Come on now, that's nonsense.

Don't even get me started on modern art, any kid could make that stuff. It's all about appearances and money laundering.

They hype it as intellectual and complex, but seems like an emperor has no clothes situation.

The meaning people ascribe feels like such a stretch, rich people just trying to seem cultured and exclusive.

Absolutely and galleries take advantage too, inflating prices and catering to celebrity. It's a total racket.

[komi]

you can get a pencil and trace it for like $2. Scam

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[Eagle]

Yes, those abstract squiggles or solid colors selling for fortunes? Come on now, that's nonsense.

Don't even get me started on modern art, any kid could make that stuff. It's all about appearances and money laundering.

They hype it as intellectual and complex, but seems like an emperor has no clothes situation.

The meaning people ascribe feels like such a stretch, rich people just trying to seem cultured and exclusive.

Absolutely and galleries take advantage too, inflating prices and catering to celebrity. It's a total racket.

Galleries pick trendy artists and manufacture hype. Art should be accessible, not elitist.

[JayEvans121365]

Art is expensive only if people are willing to pay the price for it. So I don't think its a scam. A scam is if someone is being mislead into buying something. But if someone will willingly pay 1M for a piece of art, then that is their choice and thus not a scam.

[mega-mind]

Don't even get me started on modern art, any kid could make that stuff. It's all about appearances and money laundering.

They hype it as intellectual and complex, but seems like an emperor has no clothes situation.

The meaning people ascribe feels like such a stretch, rich people just trying to seem cultured and exclusive.

Absolutely and galleries take advantage too, inflating prices and catering to celebrity. It's a total racket.

Galleries pick trendy artists and manufacture hype. Art should be accessible, not elitist.

The whole high art world gatekeeps and pretends ordinary people can't understand. It's classist.

[timi90]

it is, actually a pyramids scam like bitcoin/NFTs and only built on the greater fools theory. As long as everyone believes that it has value it is valuable.

[P4r4sit3]

In my opinion, yes, expensive art can become a scam. I can understand that a Rembrandt painting can be expensive (time, artist's style, others...) but it is also too expensive in all cases.

On the other hand, modern art can be expensive, possibly, because the main use of this purchase is to launder money

[blackboar]

Yeah, you slap some paint on a canvas. Have it appraised for $1 million. Give it to a charity and get a tax write-off of $1 million. Take it across a border.

I think they just made a movie about this with Samuel L Jackson.

[DredgenSun]

The Art Auction industry is just a money laundering racket. Modern or Classic, Art is only worth that which people are willing to give. Can be expensive, can be cheap, depends on the appreciator