As I was browsing through Bloomberg News on the World Wide Web, I was surprised by the brazen title of an article: “How Contemporary Art Became a Fiat Currency for the World’s Richest.” Intrigued, I went for it. It was James Tarmy’s review of Michael Shnayerson’s new book entitled Boom: Mad Money, Mega Dealers, and the Rise of Contemporary Art (New York: Public Affairs, 2019).[1] The review left me cold, but I was happy to find a few words about the largest unregulated financial market in the world, for that is what the art market is actually all about as of late. The title of the article says it all, anyway. Indeed, art has become a fiat currency for the world’s richest, and it is entirely out of control. Unregulated to boot. That is its very essence, as a matter of fact (“Conflict of Interests,” February 20, 2008). And this goes way beyond contemporary art, too. For example, Claude Monet’s “Haystacks” (1890) recently went for more than a hundred-million dollars at a New York auction. A fiat currency from heavens, to be sure.

Footnote

1. URL: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-16/boom-review-michael-shnayerson-chronicles-contemporary-art-rise (accessed on May 21, 2019).