런던 주재 의 세계 적 소 장가들 미술 경매 의 기록 적 상승 으로 인해 런던 의 미술 시장 이 달아오르 고 있 다 . Godfrey Barker 는 8 명 의 최고 가 매입 자 들 을 추적 했 다 . 여름 이 면 화랑 밀집 지역 인 Mayfair 나 St . James 에 는 이 들 구매자 들 의 주 무대 가 된다 . 지난 여름 David Hockney 는 " The Splash " 를 2 . 6 백만 파운드 에 삿 다 . Philip Niarchos ( 52 ) : 희랍 의 억만장자 선박 부호 이 며 전설 적 미술품 소장 가인 Starvros Niarchos 의 숨겨진 장남 으로 뉴욕 의 현대 미술관 이사 직 에 있 다 . 그 는 Picasso , Gauguin , Modigliani 등 의 작품 에 4 천 내지 6 천만 파운드 를 쾌척 할 수 있 는 사람 이 다 . 그 는 1998 년 에 Jean - Michel Basquiat 의 1984 년 초상화 를 3 백 2 십 만 달러 삿 다 . 피카소 의 초기 작품 이 경매 에서 최고가 를 기록 하 고 있 다 . 1905 년 작 피카소 의 ‘ 파이프 를 들 고 있 는 소년 ’ 이 뉴욕 의 소 더비 에서 1 억 4 백만 달러 에 낙찰 되 었 다 . 전화 낙찰 이 어서 낙찰자 는 알려 지 지 않 고 소 더비 측 도 이 그림 이 어느 대륙 으로 갔 는지 조 차 비밀 에 � 쳐 두 고 있 다 . 그러나 한 미 술지 를 주관 하 고 있 는 곳 프리 바커 는 이 그림 의 주인 이 누군지 를 짐작 하 고 있 다고 한다 . 스파게티 억만장자 인 귀도 바릴라 가 이 그림 의 주인 이 란 거 다 . 바릴라 는 고호 의 ‘ 의사 가 쉐 ’( 1990 년 옥션 에서 8 천 2 백 6 십 만 달러 ) 의 소유자 이 다 . 이번 피카소 그림 은 스위스 은행 에 보 고 한 되 어 있 을 거 라고 바커 는 추측 하 고 있 다 . 몇 안 되 는 고가 의 유명 한 그림 을 살 수 있 는 작자 는 정해져 있 기 때문 이 다 . 이런 그림 들 은 동구 속 에 묻어두 지 않 는 한 그 행방 은 뻔하 게 되 어 있 다 억만장자 들 이 그림 을 숨기 는 이유 는 도둑 과 강도 때문 이 라 하 지만 진짜 이유 는 세금 재이 가 무서워 이 다 . 그러나 , 그림 을 방콕 근해 의 동굴 속 에 감추 지 않 는 한 완벽 하 게 숨길 수 는 없 게 되 어 있 다 . 이 초 특급 고액 명화 들 에 투자 하 고 있 는 거부 들 은 식품 , 초코 렛 제조업 , 잡지사 , 록스타 들이 다 . 앤드루 로이드 웨버 는 전기 라파엘 팬 이 고 스팅 과 마도나 는 폴 메 카 시와 더불 어 영국 의 톱 스타 이 다 . 이 들 중 앨튼 죤 스 는 미술품 에 5 백만 파운드 이상 쓰 지 않 는다 . 세계 적 거부 들 이 그림 을 전시 하 기 위해 사 는지 또는 세금 때문 에 그러 는지 는 그 들 만 알 뿐 이 다 . 이런 명화 가 숨겨 지 는 또 다른 이유 는 소유자 가 은밀히 혼자 서 그림 을 보 고자 하 는 데 에 있 다 . 그러나 미술품 은 하나 의 투자 란 사실 은 틀림없 다 . Who buys paintings for $ 104 m ? By Claire Foy - Smith BBC News online An early Picasso has become the most expensive painting sold at auction - but who are the art lovers who can afford to bid such astronomical sums ? And what do they do with their multi - million purchases ? The painting broke bidding records There was a bidding frenzy when Picasso ' s 1905 work Garcon a la Pipe went under the hammer at Sotheby ' s in New York on Wednesday . But with private bidders calling in from outside the auction room , it ' s only possible to hazard a guess at the identity of the buyer who has paid $ 104 m ( ￡ 58 m ) for the work . A discreet Sotheby ' s will not even reveal the destination continent for the painting . But Godfrey Barker , of Art and Auction magazine and Art Review , who was at the auction , has his own guess at a likely buyer - Guido Barilla , the spaghetti billionaire boss of Barilla . The pasta baron is also rumoured to own Vincent Van Gogh ' s Portrait of Doctor Gachet , which had previously broken bidding records when bought for $ 82 . 5 m ( ￡ 46 m ) in 1990 . He suspects that the Picasso is bound for a bank vault in Switzerland , " the one country in the world where these things hide very well ". Buyers identities do trickle out , however , as there are only a handful of very rich people in the world who consistently spend this kind of money and get approaches from galleries to display their wares . . Unless you believe in Dr No keeping his pictures in a cave , it ' s going to be very hard to hide this picture Godfrey Barker " It ' s always secret if only because the world ' s very richest people are hiding from two kinds of character - thieves and burglars , and they are also hiding from the taxman . " But he adds : " Unless you believe in Dr No keeping his pictures in a cave under water off Bangkok , it ' s going to be very hard to hide this picture . " The secret nature of the industry goes hand in hand with the nature of art itself , he says . " It ' s gazing in complete silence at your picture on the wall . It ' s like having your own Sistine Madonna that you can gaze at all the time . " Movers and shakers These super - rich investors are people who have made fortunes in industry , from food , chocolate , magazines , and , more notoriously , rock stars . Andrew Lloyd - Webber is a fan of the Pre - Raphaelites Sting and Madonna are the UK ' s top pop star spenders , along with Paul McCartney and Andrew Lloyd - Webber . Elton John also collects , but it ' s in a different league - he never spends more than ￡ 5 m on a picture , says Mr Barker . " He ' s a man who buys in volume rather than goes for the top - of - the - mountain pinnacle stuff . " Whether the world ' s rich buy in order to display a much - loved purchase at home , or for tax purposes is open to question . " I think we have seen both types of people at the very top of the art market . But most of the people have been rich and genuinely passionate , " says Mr Barker . " At this level you can ' t be blind to the fact that art is an investment - all pictures can go down as well as up . " Swiss fate When Australian entrepreneur Alan Bond set a new world record in 1987 by buying Vincent Van Gogh ' s Irises for ￡ 27 m , it ' s reported he had a copy made for the wall , and the original went in the vault . Destination - wise , much of the world ' s privately - held art ends up in the cash - rich US , or in Switzerland , where taxes and death duties are lower - a prime consideration for the super - rich . " Switzerland , broadly speaking , is the best place in the world to drop dead by a very long distance , " says Mr Barker . And for the eagle - eyed seeking old masters , the bank vaults in that country ' s Zug region , where inheritance tax is zero , would be a very good place to start looking . Tackling the stolen art trade Looters destroyed some of Iraq ' s priceless artefacts The looting of the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad has focused mass attention on the illegal - and very lucrative - trade in stolen art and antiquities . Stolen from the museum were some of the most important ancient artefacts in the world , including the Uruk Vase - the world ' s oldest narrative work of art - and the world ' s oldest cast bronze work . " These are objects that appear in every introduction to art history , " Professor Zainab Bahrani , an art historian at Columbia University in New York , told the BBC World Service ' s Analysis programme . " In both of these cases we have objects which are examples of the first of their kind that then become imitated or inspire works of art in the rest of the world , throughout the history of art . " Every student at university sees the Uruk Vase at and introductory class . " Underground market The art world is still in a state of shock from the theft - but it is not a new phenomenon . " The illegal trade is 3 , 000 to 4 , 000 years old , if not actually older , " said Godfrey Barker , an art journalist . Picasso ' s Poverty was stolen in Manchester - and later found near a toilet Mr Barker added that he estimated 98 % of antiquities are stolen . The problem is that many works of art are instantly recognisable , so cannot be sold on the open market . Instead , they are sold on the underground market and disappear , sometimes seemingly forever . Mr Barker characterised the buyers : " James Bond ' s Mr Big , in a cave near Bangkok , may very well be staring , as we speak , at Raphael ' s Portrait Of A Young Gentleman , stolen from Krakow in 1940 and the most important loss of World War Two . " ' Second traffic ' To combat the trade , the UN Educational , Scientific and Cultural Organisation , Unesco , has announced a three - point plan to tackle the problem of looting in Iraq . It included pronouncing a ban on importing cultural objects from Iraq , immediate putting an inventory of missing objects , and establishing a mission to Iraq for a number of experts to begin restoring the country ' s cultural heritage . " This is becoming the second traffic - after drug traffic - in the world , " said Unesco ' s Assistant Director General for Culture , Mounir Bouchenaki . Cash - strapped local farmers are digging up " find sites " to acquire the objects , thereby removing the history of the object , because they know they will find a willing buyer . Amnesty That kind of trade is so difficult to police , that Anna Summers - Cox - an advisor to the British government on trade in illegal art - believes moral pressure must be applied to buyers . " It ' s rather like fur coats - everybody used to have a fur coat in the old days , nowadays there are not so keen because they think about the animal . " Now with antiquities people think of the find site that would have been behind that object . " Ms Summers - Cox added that she felt what was needed was a database of all works of art that have been stolen - dealers would then be able to check if the item they were interested in was legal . Charles Hill , who found Edvard Munch ' s The Scream after it was stolen from a museum in Oslo , recommended going one step further and offering incentives to recover important items . " As far as dealers are concerned , their reputations are their most important possession , " Mr Hill said . " An amnesty initially , and then I think some sort of covering of their expenses later on for those who bought things in good faith , " would help secure items from dealers worried about having handled stolen goods , he added . SELLER OF THE CENTURY Evening Standard ( London ) , Oct 27 , 2006 by GODFREY BARKER Find More Results for : " godfrey barker " OBITUARY ; Godfrey . .. Godfrey , William . .. Godfrey , William . .. Houston Healthcare . .. The lights go down , a hum rises from the temple of money that is Sotheby ' s New York and on the rostrum , before 1 , 200 eager faces , a measured English accent sounds out . ' Ladies and gentlemen , ' declares the auctioneer . ' Lot one this evening is a Degas portrait drawing . ' He waves at an easel on which it is set up . ' Six hundred thousand dollars , please ? ' The Americans are staring up at Tobias Meyer , the world ' s number one auctioneer and the man who sold the world ' s two most expensive pictures at auction , both of them Picassos : the $ 104 . 1 million Garcon a la Pipe , in May 2004 , and the $ 95 . 2 million Dora Maar au Chat , in May this year ( to a mysterious Russian - speaking businessman ) . Under way , as every May and November , is a glittering evening sale of Impressionist and modern pictures and sculptures , 1870 to 1950 . These two hot nights in New York yield the highest totals of any auction in the world ; between Pounds 100 million and Pounds 170 million rains down on 50 - odd masterpieces by Monet , Renoir , Degas , Cezanne , Picasso , Modigliani , Brancusi , Giacometti and Henry Moore . For Tobias Meyer , the auction is very much more than the counting of waving hands and uplifted eyebrows . It is a supreme test . It is understood by Sotheby ' s , and by this golden - heeled audience of US millionaires and billionaires , that a master of the saleroom like Meyer will add up to Pounds 40 million more to the evening ' s outcome than a weak auctioneer who generates a weak atmosphere Pounds 40 million on which Sotheby ' s earns between 10 and 15 per cent from the buyer and up to 10 per cent from the seller . on Meyer ' s performance a very large amount of Sotheby ' s annual profit and quite a number of Sotheby ' s jobs depend . Advertisement This November the Impressionist auction in New York is estimated to fetch between Pounds 128 million and Pounds 172 million , with a Pounds 19 million Cezanne still life as its highlight ; then Meyer is up again a week later , with between Pounds 60 million and Pounds 82 million of contemporary art to sell . You will see him in London with similar sales in February and June . Tobias Meyer is Sotheby ' s chief auctioneer , its face to the world . on big nights , he is not allowed to fail . Understated and intense , Tobias is as different as it is possible to be from traditional New York auctioneers most especially from the punchdrunk , rollicking banter of John Marion , Sotheby ' s auctioneer of the Eighties . Marion was the voice of ' money no object ', the living definition of the quick - win , quick - spend decade and the author of such bon mots from the rostrum as ' Come on , sir , it ' s $ 2 million , make it $ 2 million - one what ' s $ 100 , 000 between friends ? ' and ' Nine hundred thousand ? Call it $ 1 million , sir it ' ll sound so much better when you tell the folks back home '. Tobias is on the other end of the scale careful , respectful of every penny spent , the voice of a 21 st century that has learned from the uncontrolled art boom of the late Eighties and the crash of the Nineties . ' I am the voice of a smarter market , ' he asserts . John Marion , he explains , egged on his audience because he was one of the superrich himself ( married to Anne , the RadioShack heiress ) . ' He knew his bidders personally ; many of them were his friends . ' Marion whipped up competition between rich bidders . Meyer talks gravely and discreetly to a more private form of wealth , one that shuns publicity , the interest of the newspapers and of the US Internal Revenue Service . What sort of man is this 45 - year - old ? He is polite and open , greeting me with genuine sincerity : ' Very nice to see you again , Godfrey . ' A serious but kind man . His suits , by a retired Savile Row tailor , are unnoticeable in a Duke of Devonshire sort of way , though with red or purple linings . He is an introvert and , as such , in a business peopled by extroverts , an unlikely choice by Sotheby ' s chief executive Bill Ruprecht for the company ' s most crucial job . The foundation on which Tobias stands is his perfect German childhood . He grew up in a village on the edge of a ' peaceful and beautiful ' forest 20 miles from Frankfurt ; his Protestant but antireligious parents were clever and supportive ' They never called me stupid , ' he says . Tobias ' s father was a chemist who specialised in DNA ; his mother was an art student . He received exemplary advice from his father , cheerfully known in Frankfurt as ' Explosion Meyer ': finish school ; speak English ; make your hobby your profession ; play tennis or golf ; don ' t become a priest . He also received orders : keep a journal ; read immensely ; travel ; pass a lot of examinations ( he has seven German - equivalent A levels ) . It sounds ideal . ' My younger brother and I were very protected , very stable , very loved , encouraged . We were given intellectual confidence . We had comfort but not great wealth . ' Tobias remembers with obvious emotion walks in the forest and visits to the dinosaur museum , where he was fascinated by the three - horned species that alone could face down the monster Tyrannosaurus rex . His father ' s only mistake was to deliver Tobias by chauffeur every day to school , which caused his schoolfriends to tease him for being a snob . However , he packed Tobias off to England every summer , from age 14 , to an aunt in St Leonards on Sea , gave him a high - school education in Vienna and did not let him be lazy . The collectors ' curse Evening Standard ( London ) , Jan 19 , 2007 by GODFREY BARKER Find More Results for : " godfrey barker " OBITUARY ; Godfrey . .. Godfrey , William . .. Godfrey , William . .. Houston Healthcare . .. A mystery buyer just spent $ 140 million on a Jackson Pollock . Whoever you are , you should be very afraid . Bad things happen to men who splash out millions on paintings , says Godfrey Barker The art market is enjoying excess undreamed of since Gatsby , and who knows what excitement is next to come ? Will we see $ 150 million for a painting this year ? Will pigs fly ? only one note of caution . The gods do not love those who grow too tall . To become a member of that exclusive club , the owners of the world ' s most expensive paintings , is to offend heaven and court disaster . ' It takes hubris to pay $ 100 million for a picture , ' says one Sotheby ' s leading light to me . ' It ' s as if you ' re getting above yourself . Nemesis seems often to be close behind . ' Advertisement CANVAS CATASTROPHE 1 PICASSO Le RIve , 1932 Picasso ' s erotic dream of his mistress , Marie - Therese Walter , was one of his most memorable images . Its owner Steve Wynn ( left ) , the casino king of Las Vegas , was showing it to guests last October . Gesturing at Marie - Therese ' s unusual face , he put his elbow through her forearm . The hole , recalls Nora Ephron , who was there , was the size of a silver dollar , with two rips . ' Oh shit , ' he said . ' Look what I ' ve done . ' The rest of us were speechless . ' Thank God it was me , ' he added . His Picasso $ 7 , 000 in 1944 ; $ 139 million by 2006 is now unsaleable , its value probably less than $ 25 million , according to London dealers . ' Damage is one thing but publicity is worse , ' says one . Wynn ' s sale of the painting to SI Newhouse , the magazine king of New York , was cancelled . The Dream becomes part of a life that saw Wynn spend more on art than anyone from 1994 to 1999 ( $ 450 million ) , build the world ' s most expensive hotel , the Bellagio in Las Vegas ( $ 1 , 700 million ) , hit the skids , and sell the hotel and much of the art . And now this . Life is not fair . 2 DE KOONING Woman III , 1952 / 3 UNLUCKY LADY This $ 137 . 5 million painting was sold by recording and movie mogul David Geffen to hedge - fund king Steven A Cohen in November 2006 . It is the only painting from the Fifties Woman I - VI series in which the artist mocks Hollywood pinups by giving them grotesque grins and vast breasts outside a museum . The previous known record for a de Kooning was $ 20 . 68 million for Interchange in 1989 , until last year the highest recorded price for Contemporary Art . That picture brought no luck to art dealer Shigeki Kameyama of Japan who was unable to pay and relieved of most of his gallery stock by Sotheby ' s . Neither Geffen nor Cohen has yet suffered a major blow from fate over Woman III , but these are early days . 3 KLIMT Portrait of Adele Bloch - Bauer I , 1907 SPOILS OF WAR This was sold for $ 135 million in June 2006 by Maria Altmann ( left ) of Los Angeles and the descendants of the Bloch - Bauer family of Vienna to Ronald Lauder , heir to the Estee Lauder cosmetics fortune and founder of the Neue Galerie of German and Austrian ｅxpressionist Art , New York . So far , everyone is fine and well . But for the Bloch - Bauers , the seven Klimt paintings they owned represent a tale of 20 th - century misery . The paintings were seized by the Nazis on the Anschluss in 1938 and gifted to the Osterreichische Gallery ( the Belvedere ) after the war . Sixty - one years late , the Austrian government restored five to the Bloch - Bauer family in 2006 , but only after six years ' legal argument . 4 VAN GOGH Portrait of Dr Gachet , 1890 A VALUELESS VAN GOGH Sold for $ 82 . 5 million at Christie ' s New York in May 1990 ( now worth $ 127 . 3 million ) , this mournful portrait of the doctor who tried to cure Van Gogh after his year in the St Remy asylum ' This man is sicker than I am , ' the artist declared is currently unsaleable at any price . Its owner is unknown , but the picture is said ( by the Met in New York ) to be in Switzerland and to belong to the Barilla family of Padua ( Guido Barilla , above ) , who own a number of Van Goghs . Unfortunately , Dr Gachet is the subject of a claim for stolen goods , dating back to 1939 and its transportation from Amsterdam to New York for safekeeping ( from the Nazis ) by Siegfried Kramarsky for its owner , Franz Koenigs . Koenigs was murdered in 1941 . After the war , Kramarsky claimed the Van Gogh was his , as security against a loan . Koenigs did indeed owe Kramarsky , a debt secured by paintings , but Dr Gachet wasn ' t one of them . The issue is unresolved and Dr Gachet remains in hiding . The owner has refused to lend the painting for exhibition . 5 RENOIR Bal au Moulin de la Galette , 1876 BRIBES AND THE BAL Sold for $ 78 . 1 million at Sotheby ' s New York in May 1990 ( $ 120 . 5 million today ) , this Renoir favourite is another version of the artist ' s work in the Musee d ' Orsay in Paris . It was bought in May 1990 by the Japanese industrialist Ryoei Saito ( above ) of Shizuoka . Saito made his unprecedented art spend of $ 153 . 6 million in two nights in New York to restore face and demonstrate his power with the Sumitomo Bank in Japan , which had damaged his credit rating in the Eighties . REAL ESTATE : art market Out performing the FTSE art speculation overheats GODFREY BARKER - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ------------------------- Richard Prince clocked ￡ 265 , 600 this summer for a pulp fiction book cover , Bachelor Nurse . Everyone at Sotheby ’ s was astonished CONTEMPORARY ART IS a market like no other . It goes up when other art markets go down . It goes up because those who buy and sell in it want it to go up . In the 1980 s , at auction , it rose from a high of $ 198 , 000 for a living artist at the start of the decade , to a high of $ 20 . 68 million in 1989 ? a rocket - launch rise of 10 , 444 % in nine years . That Contemporary Art crashed between 1990 and 1995 , variously by 25 % to 75 % according to artist , has in no way diminished the numbers of those who punt in it . Contemporary Art is not just that . It is Contemporary Speculation . Take the lives of the rich and famous . In 1996 the artist high for Rothko ( at auction ) was just $ 3 . 63 million . It is now $ 17 . 37 million . For Andy Warhol , in 1996 it stood at $ 3 . 74 million for the Coca - Cola Bottles . Highest now are $ 15 . 1 million for Mustard Race Riot from his Death and Disaster period of 1962 - 4 , and $ 17 . 4 million for Orange Marilyn . Look at individual pictures . Francis Bacon set a new record this summer in London with a double estimate ￡ 4 . 93 million ( $ 8 . 98 million ) for the superb double portrait of George Dyer Staring into a Mirror ( the price helped upwards , giving credit where it is due , by a magnificent Christie ’ s catalogue note ) . In 1995 it sold for ￡ 922 , 571 or $ 1 . 43 million , a rise in dollars of 627 % in a decade . It looks astonishing but there are plenty more like it . Descend to the middle ranks of the market and you find the auction high for Californian Ed Ruscha was $ 297 , 000 in 1996 . That was for Honey , I Twisted Through More . Last year he hit $ 3 . 52 million for Damage . With Maurizio Cattelan , you can actually watch his artist record growing each year like a tree . The world ’ s best - known plastic joke The Pope Struck by a Meteorite was $ 880 , 000 at Christie ’ s in 2001 ; it sold at Phillips two years later for $ 3 million . At the foot of the market , if you can call it that , Marlene Dumas has advanced from $ 4400 in 1996 to $ 1 . 98 m last February ( The Teacher ) . Dumas is now an art world celebrity not just through the patronage of Charles Saatchi but from the Transatlantic competition of dealers Acquavella and Hauser & Wirth . Quite recently , however , she was so totally lacking in fame as to be listed in Hislop ’ s Art Sales Index with a question mark : “ 20 th century Dutch ? ” John Currin , he of the Botticelli - based nudes , has soared from $ 14 , 300 to $ 847 , 000 . But Currin has the dealer support of Larry Gagosian , placed at the top of the Power 100 this year in Art Review , so anything is possible . Richard Prince clocked ￡ 265 , 600 this summer for a pulp fiction book cover , Bachelor Nurse . Everyone at Sotheby ’ s was astonished but memories are short . Prince is one of the world ’ s forgotten $ 1 million artists . He hit $ 1 . 024 million for A Nurse Involved in 2002 . This is price fulfilment of a sort undreamed of by Wall Street , nasdaq or the ftse . Many artists go up for no reason that can be easily analysed . When I asked Tobias Meyer , worldwide head of Sotheby ’ s Contemporary Art , why Rothko had quintupled in eight years , he replied : “ because the people who had $ 3 million to spend on Rothko in 1996 have $ 15 million now . ” There ’ s an element of Through the Looking Glass to that explanation . But this truth remains . No oil stock , no Martha Stewart department store miracle has got near the returns to be had from calling it right on the Contemporary Art market . Contemporary Art goes up because it ’ s gotta go up . Between 1980 and 1985 , it went up when every other art business sector went down ? causing David Bathurst , Christie ’ s chairman , to call it “ the perfect market ” . As a financial instrument , it has done everything hoped for but not achieved by the Dow Jones Industrial Average , still stubbornly lodged between 10 , 000 and 11 , 000 despite the urgings of the authors of that dream volume , Dow 36 , 000 . Contemporary Art exhibits the price stampedes , the euphoria and the financial calculations that Wall Street saw in the Drexel Lambert takeover years in the 80 s . How much has this to do with art ? We ’ ve got so used to this ? so used to the tables of ‘ Fast Risers ’ printed by Hislop , so familiar with artist records octupling in an evening ? like Mario Merz at Christie ’ s last February ? that most art market commentators treat it as the natural order of things . At one level , they are right . Contemporary Art markets have gone haywire before . They did so in 17 th century Holland , in late 19 th century France ( Millet and Meisonnier ) and especially in late 19 th century England , when 11 living British artists were sent higher than the ￡ 2000 twice paid by the National Gallery for Michelangelo in 1868 and 1870 . In periods of low interest rates , 100 % on a living artist like Landseer or Holman Hunt offered a fantastic breakaway from the snail - like returns on 3 % Consols . But shake your head and you suddenly remember : for most of the 20 th century , living artists did nothing special at all in price performance . It is not , always , the natural order of things . Americans were in love for 50 years with Raphael , Gainsborough and Reynolds , the Germans execrated the modern movement and the British were bemused by it , and only the French , not the world ’ s richest nation , were suffused by their own genius . Picasso moaned at his poverty until 1948 . So what ’ s changed now ? The main thing : Contemporary Art has become the chief target of ‘ art investors ’. It takes heavy money to ride Warhol and Rothko from $ 5 m to $ 15 m and then get out with a profit . But it ’ s anybody ’ s game to go to Goldsmiths and the RCA where starting prices are typically ￡ 1000 to ￡ 5000 and place your bets to win five times the money in five years . There are Corporate Art funds in London which now aim for entry into the market at around ￡ 10 , 000 and exit within five years around ￡ 30 , 000 , or entry at ￡ 30 , 000 and exit at ￡ 90 , 000 . Art investors in 2005 love it more than ever . Contemporary Art has ‘ tipped over ’, in Malcolm Gladwell ’ s trend psychology phrase , from a minority fad into a mainstream , must - have product . The speculators are everywhere that the suckers will play the game , as in the Jack Vettriano market ( the Singing Butler ? ￡ 2000 God bless it in 1991 ? reached ￡ 744 , 800 in 2004 ) . Question : if the buyers are as cynical as this , how long can the artists stay innocent ? Godfrey Barker is a critic , authority on the art market and contributor to Art + Auction , Die Welt , the Wall Street Journal amongst others .