Money laundering is definitely involved in the fine art market but the explanation here is more banal. It's the same thing driving absurd NFT prices: Quantitati

Money laundering is definitely involved in the fine art market but the explanation here is more banal. It's the same thing driving absurd NFT prices: Quantitative Easing policies by the fed have dumped a shitton of money into the equities markets and some people have cash to burn and nowhere to put it. The nasdaq is up almost 200% in 5 years. What do you do with all this extra cash? There's only so much you can spend on luxuries for yourself. For the rest, why not put some into speculative assets which give the small chance of very high returns (crypto, startups, and, apparently, N64 carts).