The big news in the art market over the past few weeks has been that a Van Gogh went unsold at a Sotheby’s auction in New York. In an illuminating parallel, a pair of leather boots went unsold at a little shoe store in Long Beach last week.
The unsold Van Gogh landscape “The Fields (Wheat Fields),” 1890, caused such a flurry because financial analysts worried that reluctant art buyers meant people lacked confidence in the future of the world’s financial and housing markets, according to recent Wall Street Journal articles covering the auctions.
While an interesting argument, it is odd to look at the value of art as something that can change with the economy. Van Gogh’s skills don’t fluctuate with stock prices. Maybe it was just that nobody at the auction liked it enough to pay the minimum $28 million. Maybe it’s a result of lack of taste rather than confidence. But if people are buying art purely for how valuable they think it will become, then maybe this does bode ill for the future.
But while it is easy to preach at those far away billionaires, this lack of consumer confidence trickled down last week when I had the luxury of a free afternoon to spend wandering in and out of shoe stores.
In one shop, I found a pair of boots ““ or rather they found me. They were my Van Gogh. Low-heeled and leather, they were just the right mix of let’s-feed-the-cows ruggedness with would-look-with-cute-with-a-sundress style.
As college students, we may not shell out big bucks for paintings, but some things are definitely worth our extra cash. A nice print to look at in the living room or a cozy rug in the hall ““ sometimes things can add immeasurably to one’s life (or subtract ““ see my column from Oct. 9). And having a sweet pair of shoes, to me, adds. After all, what do you do in lecture besides draw in the margins? Stare at your feet.
Yet when those boots and I met, I backed out of the purchase. And in hindsight, I backed out for those reasons I was condemning. I didn’t think they were worth it. Sure they would still fit in a year, but would they still be in style? I wasn’t sure. I just didn’t have the confidence in the undergraduate job market to be shelling out three figures on shoes that may or may not fully return on my investment.
But then how can you expect something aesthetic to be worth a fixed monetary amount? And while a Van Gogh may have resale value, why would you dream of selling something you love? It’s the same with shoes. Every step you take, you can think about how pretty they are.
Maybe I’ll buy them online.
If you would buy anything from Sotheby’s Tobias Meyer, e-mail Crocker at acrocker@media.ucla.edu.