After financial implosions, such as the collapse of the dotcom bubble in 2000 or the subprime meltdown of last year and this year, such views appear arrogant. The parallel between bewildering and apparently meaningless art and unintelligible financial products is damning rather than reassuring.
So why was the Hirst auction such a success? In part, because the art involved was far from being unintelligible. The most eagerly anticipated item, a bull with golden horns and hooves, was entitled, with obvious intent, The Golden Calf.
But there was also another motive driving the bidders. One hint was that Russian buyers paid the big money at the very moment that Russia’s banking system was melting down. At the same time, there was a surge in demand for gold jewelry. The search for non-financial assets looks like characteristic behavior in any financial crisis — what was known during the great drama of hyperinflation in Weimar Germany as Die Flucht in die Sachwerte, the “flight to material assets.”
Art also functions as a store of value. But in order to be sure of the reliability of this function, the purchaser must be convinced of the long-term valuation of the object of desire.
The bankers of the Italian Renaissance also bought works of art because they reminded them of timeless values that transcended quotidian transactions. They saw their acquisitions of paintings and sculptures as a connection to eternity. Who can say the same for the products of Damien Hirst?
Harold James is professor of history and international affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, and professor of history at the European University Institute, Florence.
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