Adam Ruins Everything - How the Fine Art Market is a Scam

this is masterpiece it just sold for 5 billion of course it did it's brilliant those rich snobs don't know more about art than you they're mostly just here to make money we're told that art like this is so expensive because it's the best in the world but the fact is you're looking at a massive price-fixing scheme that benefits wealthy collectors and excludes artists like you Adam shush it the prices here are high because the art is objectively good nope the prices are high because a small group of galleries and collectors decided it was good and once they do that the price goes up whether or not anyone else agrees you paint something [Music] I declare this valuable and go find more tubed meat we're gonna be rich well outsider art is a rich tradition how much is this worth there's no way to tell big galleries actually keep their prices a secret so they can change them depending on who the buyer is for you my friend ten grand and for you my enemy two hundred grand and they do their best to keep out buyers who are considered elites Daniel Radcliffe once tried to buy a fancy painting but he was denied when the dealer told him he was waiting for a more prestigious collector for you not for sale please just one painting that doesn't talk to me why are you doing this to me because if the gallery only sells to art world elites they'll be seen as a better brand which means all of their other paintings will be worth more that is shady behavior well luckily we Outsiders could just go to art auctions they're democratic open markets where anyone could buy sorry but the major auction houses are just as rigged as the galleries auctions play all sorts of dirty tricks to drive their prices up like straight up paying people to bid let's start the bidding at four million dollar do I see 4 million 4 million and if the bidding is too slow auctioneers even use a practice called chandelier bidding they just point to a random spot above everyone's heads and pretend to see a bid I and I see 5 million for the bidder in the back she's my girlfriend who you don't know because she lives in Canada what she's back across the border so don't turn around whatever six million why are you okay with us Oh simple darling I own other paintings by this artist so when this one sells high it increases the value of my entire collector sometimes we even bid anonymously to drive up the price up next we have a fine condiment based work for an emerging artists whoo I want to bid on this one we should all bid on this one let's start the bidding at 7 million dollars this shady market can also be manipulated by crooks who use it to defraud the government and launder dirty money hello I would like to buy a painting from your fine gallery using legitimate cash monies the red is paint but not all collectors are crooks I mean there's good people out there who donate their collections to museums sure and that seems very charitable until you remember that that donation is also a tax write-off and here's where it can get really shady the collectors hire their own appraisers to determine the value of the art they donate so they can use it as one big tax dodge you owe 40 million in taxes this year yeah what if I donate this painting worth 40 million at the end of the day this is what the fine art market is a few rich people passing money around no no that I want no part of this screw this gallery and screw this opening I will make identifying our world on my own sorry that's not really how it works Stephanie this is Alison Trager she's an economist and journalist at courts who's reported on the fine art market not only is the fine art world manipulated financially it's also extremely exclusive only a small share of artists are allowed to succeed and only their work is considered valuable and those aren't necessarily the best artists often they're just the ones who are best at marketing themselves and at play in the gallery game one art dealer I spoke with even admitted that the art you buy in the street is cheaper and often just as good it's just not as prestigious so big collectors and museums just aren't interested in it and that means this small group of ultra wealthy investors ends up defining what fine art is so the fine art world is all a lie and it's all about money and who gets into this stupid snobby Club hey Adam here if you like that be sure to watch all new episodes of Adam ruins everything every Tuesday at 10:00 on truTV

Channel: CollegeHumor

Views: 4,205,140

Rating: 4.8745761 out of 5

Keywords: Collegehumor, CH originals, comedy, sketch comedy, internet, humor, funny, sketch, adam ruins everything, adam ruins, ARE, adam ruins art, adam ruins the art market, art, fine art, modern art, art scams, auctions, business, business scams, behind the scenes, facts, edutainment, did you know, art galleries, art gallery, art auctions, auction

Id: NSdbASDdwU4

Length: 5min 15sec (315 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 09 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/ironArrowsmith]

For what it's worth, this is how fine art has ALWAYS been. Eventually, the outsiders will find their way up the ladder and declare their art the new "fine" art, and a new group of outsiders will be excluded after revolutionizing their work in one way or another, and the cycle starts over again. And that's how definable art movements are made!

[u/rockdude14]

Here's a documentary that goes into a bit more about the fine art market.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuMAhEOggac

If you like that Sour Grapes is a good documentary about the fine wine market.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5728684/

[u/Go_Cart_Mozart]

Adam explains how the system for every medium of art has worked since the dawn of.............art.

[u/razorbackgeek]

This is why you buy prints, or just get your art from government sources. You can use NASA images for free, as long as you don't resell them.

[u/chefranden]

It is a scam on rich folks, so who gives a shit.