Why the possible sale of the Mona Lisa — absurd method to pay the costs of the state
ARTinvestment.RU   25 мая 2020

Artnet publishes its list of reasons why the sale of da Vinci, even for €50 billion may not work

last Tuesday, may 19, on the pages of the British newspaper Independent was published offer of the entrepreneur Stefan Distinguen like France to cope with growing internal debt. According to Dischingen, this government of the country enough to sell one single picture — "Mona Lisa" by Leonardo da Vinci. This offer last week caused heated discussions in different countries, and not only among representatives of art-сообщества. Interestingly, the past and the more detailed publication of the same proposal in early may of 2020, in the French magazine Usbek & Rica no response called. Probably because it was originally written in French.

proposal that the period of crisis — is the time for profitable sale of assets, the value of which is undeniable and not depend on the crisis factors. According to Dischingen, "Mona Lisa" fits this definition. Moreover, that "the game was worth the candle", he proposes to appoint her as "insane" price, because the value of the purchase will be so great that potential buyers will not be able to resist. And the price is this, he believes, must be defined in the region of €50 billion ($54.5 billion). Given the cost of record sales "Savior of the world" for $450 million, of course.

According to Dischingen, price €50 billion is composed of three main factors. In-первых, known according to unofficial sources, the amount of insurance the other works of da Vinci: according to some, insurance is "Vitruvian man" on the time display in the Louvre amounted to approximately €1 billion In-вторых of market prices for "Savior of the world": after all, if not the most successful and famous work of Leonardo to question the authorship of which still has not subsided so much, the "Mona Lisa" obviously should cost more. Third, Distingan estimated that every tourist who arrives in Paris to look at the "Mona Lisa" spends an average of €1.5 million Thus, taking into account the average number of tourists annually, buy paintings for €50 billion — is "only" 17 years of tourism activity, which picture able to bring the new owner (if he wants to show to its tourists, and tourists will agree to pay €1.5 million for only one Mona Lisa, without exploring the other treasures of the Louvre. — AI.).

However, according to Tim Schneider, the author of Artnet, writing analytical articles, including reports Artnet Intelligence, these calculations do not stand up to scrutiny. This is his argument:

• In-первых, the insured value and the market value of the insurable object are related, but not interchangeable. Usually, insurance estimates tend to be artificially inflated. The fact that the appraiser that determines the cost of insurance, is interested in minimizing the losses of his client, in other words, in the interests of the insurer to evaluate the work at the lowest possible cost. That is, even if the "Vitruvian man" really took the figure of €1 billion, it does not mean that the market its cost would be close to this amount.

• with respect to the second argument, — comparison "Savior of the world" and "Mona Lisa",of course, the "Mona Lisa" should be appreciated more. But hardly in 111,1 times. According to comparison the cost of all work, bearing the title of "most expensive paintings sold at auction" over the last 30 years, i.e. since the beginning of such statistics (there were 7), adjusted for inflation and in terms of the dollar, in 2019, the prices of records up to 2015 range from $125,1 million to $161,7 million a Certain price spike occurred in 2015, when the "Algerian women" by Picasso was sold for $193,8 million (in 2019 dollars). Compared to this growth, record prices almost 2.5 times for "Savior of the world" Leonardo, whose price, adjusted for inflation, today would amount to $470 million, — is almost unbelievable exception to the rule. Because, according to statistics, from 1989 to 2019 every new record was higher than the previous one from 0.89 to 2.5 times, an average of less than 1.25 times.

• as for the argument about payback this fantastic amount, it is quite reasonable, but, based on previous reflections, it is unlikely it would come to this.

the Material was prepared by Maria Kuznetsova, AI

Source: news.artnet.com