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Sounds straight out of the movies. Black market for ancient/cultural artifacts that provide no practical benefits whatsoever to someone's life. Fascinating.

• dagw 6y ago
  provide no practical benefits whatsoever to someone's life. I guess it provides status and bragging rights within your social circle. When you and all your friends are rich enough to be able to buy basically anything that is legally for sale, owning stuff that your neighbor cannot also just go out and buy becomes the only interesting type of purchase left to make.
  • toyg 6y ago
    > no practical benefits ... except being a tax-free investment that will likely hold value forever (because it’s effectively unique) and is often easier to secure than more typical assets (because it’s hard to resell without very specific contacts).
    • dagw 6y ago
      except being a tax-free investment that will likely hold value forever That is a lot less likely when it comes to stolen artifacts.
      • Someone 6y ago
        Also, if you steal it, it’s income and you have to pay income tax, so it’s not tax-free. That’s what did in Al Capone (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Capone#Tax_evasion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Capone#Tax_evasion) You also may have to pay wealth tax over possessing expensive goods.
• Hoasi 6y ago
  > Black market for ancient/cultural artifacts that provide no practical benefits whatsoever to someone's life. Fascinating. No practical benefit but status; a lot of people, rich and poor, are chasing standing.
  • ghostbrainalpha 6y ago
    There is actually a VERY practical benefit to holding stolen art and artifacts in certain circles. For Criminal Organizations, drug dealers, terrorists, etc... these items can be used as collateral to secure loans or drugs on consignment, or exchanged for hostages. They are a vital part of the black market currency exchange. This is a big part of the plot of the book "Gold Finch" if you find it interesting. Another very easy way to look at it, if you are a drug dealer wanting to move 10 Million dollars, that's not very easy in cash even if its $100 bills. A single painting could hold the same value and take up much less physical space.
    • Pick-A-Hill2019 6y ago
      Indeed. From [1] "The two stolen works were eventually recovered in 2016, when they were used by an Italian mafia boss as collateral to get a more lenient jail sentence." And from [2] "Artworks tend to surface either very quickly after they are stolen or else disappear into the underworld where they are traded between criminals at a fraction of their value for drugs and other illicit materials, Marinello said." [1] https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/worldnews/11904865/van-gogh-painting-stolen-criminal/ https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/worldnews/11904865/van-gogh-pa... [2] https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/aug/16/rembrandt-stolen-california https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/aug/16/rembran...
• Zenbit_UX 6y ago
  No more practical value than a painting.
• BenoitEssiambre 6y ago
  I mean, it's not surprising given the popularity of much less tangible cryptocoins. Cryptocoins are basically taking that idea to the extreme, going farther than removing all benefits and requiring constant burning of energy to keep them alive. At least with a museum piece, you own a tangible piece of history. It's much more material than a digital checksum chain to some 2009 Satoshi ones and zeros.