Welcome to Rye Country Day's Economic Blog. Here you will find perspectives by students taking Economics at Rye Country Day School. It is meant to be a forum where students can openly express their ideas and take positions on relevant economic issues. I urge everyone to participate in presenting their own ideas in an open manner so that we can all learn from each other. Regardless of whether you are currently taking Economics, everyone is invited and encouraged to comment on articles and get involved. Feel free to e-mail me, Alex Osborne at alexander_osborne@rcds.rye.ny.us , with comments or suggestions.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Featured Entry - The Art of Pricing Great Art


The concept of spending millions of money on a piece of Art is very strange to me. My first reaction was, how could you have That much Extra money? And can you think of nothing better to do with it? But then again, from a financial perspective, investing those extra millions in art is actually a good idea. With the fluctuation in economy and tax rates, buying expensive art is an easy way to protect your money from being taxed and re-taxed as the rates change, allowing buyers to only paying a purchase tax. Also, it prevents your money from being effected by any temporary inflation and deflation. However, the purpose of the article, and quite an interesting question, - Who determines how much any given piece of art is worth? I think the key to this has much less to do with the type of Art (As much as I try to rebut that) and who the artist is as we think. Along with how much the artist might ask for, I think the worth and the value of a piece of Art work, is as much someone else is willing to pay for it at any given time. And I truly believe that logic applies to most things not holding a set price.

-Chelsea Gaulin

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The art world makes me angry, I admit it. I think part of it is that art's price is mainly determined by the beholder, whereas a house or a plot of land by the water is generally seen by all as pricey. I also think that once a person is rich enough, they can set the standard for what "fine art" is. Sure, one art style may be revolutionary, but no one brags about owning a piece until some tycoon has bought one for some obscene amount. The buyer usually sets the price in capitalist markets, but I think in art's case, "the buyer" is really more of a specific person.