Anti Money Laundering

[ursus arctos]

MsD against speaks from valuable experience here

The more that I learned about the "art market", the more uncomfortable I became

[San Bernardhinault]

On the subject of the art market, I keep getting weird embedded ads in a newsletter (I didn't know whether to put this in the annoying ads thread, or even the NFT thread) that tells me that "The Ultra Rich have been investing in art for centuries! Now it's your turn to reap the profit." Which seems to be buying some kind of share of a portfolio of paintings, or something.

Which seems to completely miss the point of art, which is that it's there to be looked at. You buy art so you can look at it (or, I suppose if you're the ultra rich, to smugly show it off to your admirers and underlings). Buying part of an art portfolio that you can never actually look at feels like an astonishing scam.

[caja-dglh]

MsD against speaks from valuable experience here

The more that I learned about the "art market", the more uncomfortable I became

Roman Abramovich screwed over one of my friends flipping her art work days after the artist share on resale expired.

[ursus arctos]

SB's art as a asset class adverrt just featured on the Willow stream of the second Major Leage Cricket match

[MsD]

MsD against speaks from valuable experience here

The more that I learned about the "art market", the more uncomfortable I became

Did I tell you this? In 2019/2020 I catalogued someone’s art collection. She’s about 30, daughter of a diplomat from an ex-Sov republic. Most of the multi-million collection is in storage, although I was asked one day if I could go over to her apartment and help her find a Chagall (one of the very few items I coveted, as much of it was horrible) that she’d mislaid. It turned up behind a sofa.

[ad hoc]

Which seems to completely miss the point of art, which is that it's there to be looked at. You buy art so you can look at it (or, I suppose if you're the ultra rich, to smugly show it off to your admirers and underlings).

Yeah but normal people buy property to live in.

[San Bernardhinault]

Same here.

[ursus arctos]

MsD, I'm not certain that you shared that story with us before, but it is massively unsurprising in every respect (of course including your superior taste)

[MsD]

No need to butter me up, I didn’t pinch a couple of valuable horrors for myself
Did daydream about it, though, especially after watching that (recommended) film with Geoffrey Rush and Jim Sturgeon. Not like they were being appreciated by their current owner.

[ad hoc]

Same here.

Sorry, I didn't mean that to sound like a dig at you. Just commenting that the wealthy buy up property as an investment thereby denying its use as, you know, shelter and that. Just like people buying art to stick it in a vault. Basically the world is fucked and largely because rich people are cunts

[ursus arctos]

And that a major expression of that cuntitude is capturing policy to benefit themselves

[Ginger Yellow]

More PSC shenanigans.

The investigation also reveals that Alpha, run by a Russian businesswoman named Victoria Valkovskaya, helped to create 927 limited partnerships - one in five of those registered in England, Wales and Northern Ireland since 2017.