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https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/02/09/584555705/episode-823-planet-monet https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/02/09/584555705/epis... "The art marke

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/02/09/584555705/episode-823-planet-monet https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/02/09/584555705/epis... "The art market is going nuts. People are spending record amounts of money of paintings like Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi. But not everyone is rushing home to hang their new artwork up on their walls. A lot of buyers are storing their art in vast warehouses near airports. They're called, "freeports." Freeports exist between countries, a sort of no man's land, which means you can store your artwork there as long as you want, without having to pay any taxes on it."

simonsarris 6y ago
Haha, so then, if your art is stolen from a freeport, you don't ever pay the taxes. This makes the hilarious incentive for people to steal their own purchased artwork from themselves, so they can finally display it (while dodging the tax). Or else just claim its still in storage while absconding the work to the manor, etc.
- biztos 6y ago
  I would imagine the security protocols of freeports like Geneva or Singapore make it pretty hard to fake any theft; and artworks valuable enough to be stored in places like that are usually insured, so you'd have the insurance investigator to deal with. Claiming it's in storage while it's actually not: that might work, especially if it's something small and you can smuggle in a copy.
biztos 6y ago
Whether "Salvator Mundi" is hiding in a freeport, or hiding on one of MBS's many many walls, either way it still wasn't painted by Leonardo da Vinci. (There is some controversy about this, but the side I take is taken by more than the press lets on, because the auction houses have taken the other side and pissing them off can be career-ending.) https://news.artnet.com/opinion/kenny-schachter-on-the-missing-salvator-mundi-1565674 https://news.artnet.com/opinion/kenny-schachter-on-the-missi...

simonsarris 6y ago

Haha, so then, if your art is stolen from a freeport, you don't ever pay the taxes. This makes the hilarious incentive for people to steal their own purchased artwork from themselves, so they can finally display it (while dodging the tax). Or else just claim its still in storage while absconding the work to the manor, etc.

biztos 6y ago
I would imagine the security protocols of freeports like Geneva or Singapore make it pretty hard to fake any theft; and artworks valuable enough to be stored in places like that are usually insured, so you'd have the insurance investigator to deal with. Claiming it's in storage while it's actually not: that might work, especially if it's something small and you can smuggle in a copy.

biztos 6y ago

Whether "Salvator Mundi" is hiding in a freeport, or hiding on one of MBS's many many walls, either way it still wasn't painted by Leonardo da Vinci. (There is some controversy about this, but the side I take is taken by more than the press lets on, because the auction houses have taken the other side and pissing them off can be career-ending.) https://news.artnet.com/opinion/kenny-schachter-on-the-missing-salvator-mundi-1565674 https://news.artnet.com/opinion/kenny-schachter-on-the-missi...