More records
May 10 2012
Picture: Getty/AFP/Art Daily
Yet more auction records fell yesterday at Sotheby's; a Lichtenstein (above) for $44.8m,and a Warhol 'Double Elvis for $37m. Ai Weiwei's ton of Sunflower Seeds fetched $782,500. The Bacon I mentioned yesterday sold for $45m. A full roundup at Bloomberg here.
If anyone knows whether these enormous prices are a) signs of a healthy economy, or b) the world going mad, please let me know.
Update - a reader writes:
You ask about art prices: 'If anyone knows whether these enormous prices are a) signs of a healthy economy, or b) the world going mad, please let me know.'
To be fair, has the same question not been asked many times in the past, over many years if not several centuries? On the other hand, I personally cannot think that some of this art will last; and I include even 'The Scream', I am afraid. Yet on the third hand (maybe this makes me an alien), was that not said also in the past, for instance about Manet and Monet?
