Quote from: MichaelBliss on September 24, 2014, 05:11:49 AM

Quote from: duke1839 on September 23, 2014, 08:23:18 PM

http://news.yahoo.com/record-breaking-contemporary-art-103321463.html

The proper way to read pieces like this is to understand that the price of art is difficult for governments to manipulate unlike gold, fiat, or even crypto to some extent. The rich are parking their money in art not as an investment but just as a place to hold value. When the price of art is rising, understand that the art isn't necessarily getting more valuable but its price in fiat is changing as a hidden sign of inflation.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-145257/Auction-house-Sothebys-fined-12m-EC-art-price-fixing.html

Auction house Sotheby's fined £12m by EC for art price-fixing

Sotheby's was today fined £12 million by the European Commission for rigging the art market in collusion with rival Christie's.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-145257/Auction-house-Sothebys-fined-12m-EC-art-price-fixing.html#ixzz3ECtQXHME
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Nice one! I had almost forgotten about this story. Although this particular case has nothing to do with the current surge in art prices, I'm glad you brought it up for a different reason. These two companies had colluded to fix auction prices. Of course Austrian economists will say that price fixing schemes are inherently unstable as both companies have a bigger incentive to ignore the agreement that to abide by it. But try explaining that bit of game theory to a jury that already views these companies as being for stuffy rich people. A jury may not understand game theory but the government does.

Price fixing cases were extremely difficult to prosecute because they relied on one company defecting to the government and putting themselves at risk for prosecution. The solution the government devised was to automatically grant immunity to the first company that defects to the government even if they are the more guilty party. Even if the whole thing was their idea and they convinced the other company to go along with their scheme. That's exactly what happened here. Christy's convinced Sotheby's to go along with their scheme and Christy's also defected to the government first about the scheme. Your government rewards dishonesty from businessmen.