• glimse@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        25
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        9 months ago

        That is absolutely not true. Museums themselves only display like 5-10% of their collection - the rest is locked away. Most art is in private storage

          • glimse@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            13
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            9 months ago

            I am not but the museum stash is surely due to space! Can’t have every artifact on display or the museum would be the size of the city.

            As for private collectors, work from famous artists rarely goes down in value…so rich people “invest” on storing thousands of paintings to make their finances look lower. It’s a tax evasion scheme honestly and the fact that it deprived people from seeing said works makes it even worse imo

            • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              9 months ago

              to make their finances look lower. It’s a tax evasion scheme honestly

              Buying art has the same effect on taxes as buying shares of Berkshire Hathaway, which is to say no effect at all until you sell.

              • glimse@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                9 months ago

                Right, it’s defering gains. They are “storing value” and unlike stocks, depriving the world of art in the process

                • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  9 months ago

                  You can store value by buying gold instead, or just depositing money in a bank account.

                  Financially, buying art only makes sense if the value increases. And it might, but stocks are generally more likely to increase and therefore make a lot more sense than buying art.

                  In either case, buying them won’t reduce your taxes.

                  • glimse@lemmy.world
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    ·
                    9 months ago

                    Art absolutely increases in value. And it’s steady, too, being unaffected by the market. Your stocks might crash but the art market won’t and a new artist isn’t going to change the value of a Van Gogh like the discovery of a gold deposit.

                    Furthermore, the art itself has no true value so the price can be manipulated through hype. I know someone personally (client at my old job) who proudly played this game with the paintings of a deceased friend. You just need one person to spend 100k on a painting (say, a friend…) And then suddenly every painting is worth 100k. Hype and repeat.

                    It’s been years since I dug into it but here is a decent article (that I admittedly skimmed as I’m about to leave work) describing how art is used to evade taxes

            • Rapidcreek@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              10
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              9 months ago

              First of all, you have to acknowledge there is a finite area for proper display. Secondly, this happens more in the artifact world than the fine art world. Third, not all parts of a collection are as good or even ready to display. Some are in need of restoration. Some are inferior to others on display. Lastly, museums like to rotate displays to help visitors see something fresh. All this doesn’t mean that museum storage areas are not interesting. The Smithsonian has a very interesting one which I was lucky to lost in when I was a child.