Art Anxiety is a Crippling Disorder for the Wealthy
March 3, 2008
The International Herald Tribune reports
on the latest affliction for the wealthy: art anxiety. Multi-millionaires who spend freely on cars and luxury homes quibble when they have to shell out $15,000 for a painting. How will they know if it's really any good, they wonder.
Teddy Greenspan is a longtime art collector who does not suffer doubt. He is a bond salesman at Libertas Partners, in Greenwich, Connecticut, and he and his wife, Emily, recently created an art consulting company in Bedford, New York, called tag-arts. The pieces he sells average about $20,000, with a few selling for as much as $90,000; his clients, many of whom work in the financial fields, can well afford them. So you can imagine his frustration when dealing recently with a friend and potential client he calls "Mr. No-Name Hedge Fund Manager."
"He's in his 30s, probably worth 20-some million and feels poor because his personal net worth has gone down from 26 million since last summer," Greenspan said. "He buys a Park Avenue apartment for $7 million, spends another $7 million decorating it, and now he quibbles over $15,000 or $18,000 for a painting."
As an art consultant, Greenspan has encountered this kind of conflict before.
"If you are in the process of decorating a home, you know what the sofa costs; you have a good idea of what wallpaper costs," he said, but art is different. "People don't like spending big numbers on things they don't understand. They understand the boat, the fur, the car, but for lack of homework or lack of taste, they just don't understand art."
Art paralysis: It is a widespread and often crippling malady, striking everyone from the new college grad in his or her first apartment to the super-rich banker, lasting anywhere from a few months to a lifetime. How many are affected is not known, perhaps because the victims are often too embarrassed to come forth. Who wants to admit that "I've had these posters since college, I know that as one of the American Top 10 Orthodontists I should get some real art, but I don't know what that means"? Or that "It's not that I'm trying to make a minimalist statement with these empty white walls, I just don't know what to buy"? Or "I walk into those snooty galleries in Chelsea and feel like I just don't belong"?
Art anxiety is a terrible affliction. We think it's simply shameful that none of the presidential candidates are addressing. Of course, those who are afflicted could just hire a consultant to clue them in or -- God forbid -- study up on the subject. Think positively, art anxiety sufferers. There is hope you can learn about art: Yes, you can!
