200m dollars for a piece of art?

Picture: Mark Rothko paintings (courtesy of www.fadwebsite.com).

I remember reading an article where an employee of an art auction house talked about that they expect a piece of art to be auctioned off in the near future for $200m (the current auction record is about $73m, as far as I know). She gave the following reason for this claim: there are enough people wealthy enough to pay such a price, like newly rich collectors from emerging economies. And she also gave an interesting explanation how apparently a maximum price for a piece of art is set: by peer pressure. According to a friend of mine who is close to the art world, the art market is driven by a few global opinion leaders, art dealers, curators, collectors and the like. They tell the wealthy but insecure hordes of art-addicts what is good art or bad art and they ultimately determine prices. The maximum price for a piece of art is set by what the peer group in the art market thinks is, still, a ‘reasonable’ or ‘acceptable’ price. If someone pays more they get laughed at. And it is not nice to be laughed at from your peer group. But it is nice to be known for a expensive piece of art.