> I'm amazed that the article doesn't discuss the end of ZIRP.

I'm not sure this particular phenomenon can be explained this way. For example, antiques auctions are doing quite well, with prices rising quite briskly year after year. There's still plenty of money chasing the kinds of long-term investments you can hold in your hand, put on a shelf, and show to your friends.

Jewelry sales are doing fine too.

There are other reasons why going to a fancy gallery in London to buy some decor for your mansion just isn't as enticing as it used to be a decade or two decades ago.

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tjwds 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

The end of ZIRP definitely hit the contemporary art market — what the article is referring to — harder than the fine art market.

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boston_clone 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I do wonder if one of those reasons is that the general sentiment of the public is moving beyond contempt and towards sharp objects not dissimilar to how friends across the channel tended to handle things.

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incone123 3 days ago | parent [-]

I doubt wealthy people are afraid to shop at London galleries or auctions. There are street robberies but they target watches and phones, not so much antiques.

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boston_clone 3 days ago | parent [-]

Maybe my comment didn't capture the zeitgeist - it's not that they're afraid of robberies per se, but rather simply living as a wealthy individual in a society with massive inequalities of income has much more social pushback than say, twenty-five years ago.

	▲	incone123 2 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		What do you think the social pushback would look like from the wealthy person's point of view? If you get chauffeured from your London home to your country house and all your social circle are in the same bracket then you won't encounter much of it. And their children might be following activists on social media but they'll still join the family heli-skiing trip to Canada.
	▲	freejazz 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Hasn't seemed to stop the rich at all