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Sculpture sells for £65,000,000 at Sotheby's London, is the world crazy?

A couple of days ago a sculpture by Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti has smashed the world record for an art work at auction, selling in London for £65 million

Link to news source

To me it's astonishing that someone would choose to spend £65 million on a statue regardless of how wealthy they may be, when the money could go towards something much more worthwhile.

Reply 1

TruckBear

15

As much as anything it's just art-collectors maintaining/upping the value of the pieces they already own by bidding high on others. It creates a self-fulfilling spiral of rocketing prices.

Reply 2

marcusmerehay

17

It's similar to the football transfer market really. If you want something that badly, you'll pay anything for it.

Reply 3

theonetheonly

Ok, but the bidder paid that much not only to purchase the statues but also to beat the other bidder with whom he was locked in a bidding war. I think £65m is worth that.

Reply 4

Chiko 1001

14

Not that you'd suggest you might know better than a hugely successful person what the best way to spend their money was...

It's his cash. He can do whatever the hell he wants with it. If art makes him feel good, then why not?

Reply 5

Jayk

1

Yahoo News

It beat the previous record for a work at auction set by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso's painting "Garcon a la Pipe" which was bought for £65.8 million in New York in 2004, said the auction house.

...

L'homme qui marche I (Walking Man I) fetched exactly £65,001,250, which included the buyer's premium, said the auctioneers.

Say what? I know seven is better than three, thus surely £65.8 million is more than £65.001250 million?

Still, it is a ludicrous amount of money to spend on something so trivial.

Reply 6

concubine

17

If I had £65mil to waste it would have gone to charity long before I thought of going to look at some ****** modern art.

Reply 7

Hugh-Jackman

he may really really want it....plus will it lose that much value over time?? people go mad at people buying art work and fancy jewellery but at the end of the day they're still worth something in 50-100 years time....people will buy cars for 80k(can be a lot more) and be a fraction of what they bought them for 5 years later.

Reply 8

Dude Where's My Username

15

Yeah I know, insane!! People spending their own money on something they want :yikes:

Reply 9

x-pixie-lottie-x

14

if you've got the money why not
if they were paying me it would be better though damn em lol
x

Reply 10

cucumber sandwich

8

It's their money, they can do what they want with it, doesn't matter if it's "worthwile" or not in your eyes

Reply 11

NW86

12

People probably wouldnt mind so much if the person invested 65million in a company.

S/he has invested it in a piece of art work, i see very little difference.

Reply 12

fire2burn

17

Tax evasion... can lock up your financial assets in art so the tax man can't get at it.

Similar thing is known to occur with horses for racing.

Reply 13

NW86

12

Hugh-Jackman

he may really really want it....plus will it lose that much value over time?? people go mad at people buying art work and fancy jewellery but at the end of the day they're still worth something in 50-100 years time....people will buy cars for 80k(can be a lot more) and be a fraction of what they bought them for 5 years later.

No, art is one of the few commodities that rarely loses value (unless damaged or proved to be a fake at a later date) it can move out of fashion which effects value, but on pieces such as this that have been sold for a vast amount at auction, this adds to provenance valuation of the piece. It is unlikely this item if sold in 10-20 years time would not make a decent profit.

Many art collectors, especially Russian Oligarchs purchase large amounts of artwork as investments for these reasons.

Reply 14

Hugh-Jackman

fire2burn

Tax evasion... can lock up your financial assets in art so the tax man can't get at it.

Similar thing is known to occur with horses for racing.

and this....a lot like yanks using money they give to charity as a kind of expense so they can pay less taxes.

Reply 15

musama91

8

No, most of these huge sum items are bought by Russian Oligarchs who have billions in their back accounts and so 65m is just a drop of water for them. With huge egos and even bigger pockets, they will not be beaten by anyone so will pay anything to prove they are bigger