On Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 8:14 PM, joseph berg <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 1:08 PM, William Conger > <[email protected]>wrote: > >> Berg, you're veering off again into the land of very dumb qoutations. >> Stop it. >> Get back on track with some sensible comments such as your recent posts. >> > > But I think that it is very relevant to realize that in any system, once > the money people get the upper hand (e.g., collectors), then rather than > work the system, they start trying to get the system to work for them by > manipulating it to make it even more profitable for themselves, i.e., they > turn the system into an auction where the highest bidders (the collectors > who spend the most) begin to call the shots as to what is valuable and what > is not. > > Quickly escalating value starts redefining any values that previously > existed and then what happens is that the highest bidders try to create a > flavor-of-the-month mentality which is even more profitable and what the > fashion industry is all about, i.e., something is hot for the moment and > then the small potato collectors are made to feel insecure as the big > cheese collectors play a kind of bait-and-switch to create a gold rush > state of mind among the mob. Sort of like a ponzi scheme where > the latecomers are lured by the early birds who are now in a position > profit most from the system. > > "Jump on the bandwagon, or you'll be left behind" is what the small potato > collectors are made to think as they chase after the latest not knowing > that the big cheese collectors have already taken the best of the latest > for themselves: > > The institution of art (where it's about values) => industry of art (where > it's about profits) => racket (where it's about getting even more profits > by hook or by crook, usually crook, (e.g., deception, exploitation) > > If once upon a time artists were at the mercy of the will of their patrons, and then found themselves as the mercy of the whims of the public, now they there are the machinations of auctioneers to contend with: http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2011/11/art-market
