Andrew Week 4: Is Art Overpriced?

 It is commonly said that fine art is not worth the hefty price tag that usually comes with it. Often times, paintings and sculptures seem worthless to the average person. For example, if you see a Jackson Pollock painting for the first time, you may assume that it is a worthless collection of squiggly lines. However, what you may not know is that his most expensive painting sold for $140 million in 2006. This begs the question, are these art pieces really worth the big bucks?

    According to Vox, most art isn't actually expensive at all. The website does acknowledge that there are very wealthy, famous, and influential artists, in the world, but it states that "most [artists] are not and never will be." It is suggested that most art isn't the art sold at an auction house, but rather sold direct to consumer from the artists themselves. It is undeniable, however, that there is quite a large number next to some art pieces. Why?

    Some people believe it is simply because of demand. According is Wonderopolis, it is simply because of demand. They argue that the reason that art has always gone up in price is that more and more people are able to afford it, making it more in demand. However, they are more referring to the art that may be expensive, but not art that costs tens (or even hundreds) of millions of dollars. Ia there any justification for these pieces of art? The BBC writes that the reason why fine art is so expensive is because it is a steady measure of economic growth. They argue that no matter what happens to the global economy, there will simply always be a wealthy man or woman that wants to buy an expensive art piece. When that stops happening, that's how we truly know that the global economy has sustained possibly irreversible damage. Do you think that art should be sold for this much money? If you had billions of dollars, would you spend this much money on art, let alone anything?

Kkiesnoski. “The Top 5 Most Expensive Paintings Ever Sold.” CNBC, CNBC, 1 Oct. 2015, https://www.cnbc.com/2015/10/01/the-top-5-most-expensive-paintings-ever-sold.html#:~:text=Jackson%20Pollock%20No.,5%2C%201948.&text=The%202006%20sale%20by%20record,New%20York%20Times%20from%20Nov.

“Why Is Art so Expensive?” BBC Culture, BBC, https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20130417-why-is-art-so-expensive.

“Why Is Art Expensive?” Wonderopolis, https://www.wonderopolis.org/wonder/why-is-art-expensive.

Valle, Gaby Del. “Why Is Art so Expensive?” Vox, Vox, 31 Oct. 2018, https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/10/31/18048340/art-market-expensive-ai-painting.