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Freeports (~storage facilities at airports) contain large amounts of boxed paintings, sculptures,... for investment purposes. No one ever looks at those. Planet Money has an episode about it [0].

[0] https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/02/09/584555705/epis...

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Let's not kid ourselves - a lot of art transactions simply facilitate money-laundering.

NFTs probably will too, so I suppose that's at least one similarity between the two.

Fair enough, but does that investment value ultimately derive from the demand from people who do enjoy looking at the art? I would expect so, otherwise it's just a kind of collective delusion. (I haven't watched the episode, perhaps they tackle this question.)

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