Hey Dad, can you help me return the Picasso I stole? | Hacker News Reader

Hey Dad, can you help me return the Picasso I stole?

nytimes.com

44 pointsanyonecancode18 comments

Sad conclusion at the end though.

(Spoiler alert.)

All of these famous paintings hidden away in the private collections of rich people instead of being in public galleries.

One thing I wondered, when I sae footage of a warehouse full of collectors art: why a warehouse and not a public museum?

Even at museums the vast majority of their collection is stored in a warehouse somewhere. There's never enough room in the gallery to show it all. There's also the matter of properly displaying works in context, lighting, etc. And protecting them from UV damage and visitors.

Museums gradually rotate what they have on display, and regularly lend what isn't on display to other museums.

Right, but this is art someone is paying to store at a warehouse so they see it as an investment. So they aren't going to donate it to a museum but might loan it for display. Which happens all the time but it tends to be a very small set of special pieces. You can't take a whole art warehouse and dump it on a museum and say "display this" there simply isn't space. Museums are limited by space (and funds) shortages, not art shortages.

> You can't take a whole art warehouse and dump it on a museum and say "display this" there simply isn't space. Museums are limited by space (and funds) shortages, not art shortages.

It’s still better for the world that culturally significant art be owned by museums, than by private collectors, even if most of the art is not on display all the time.

A lot of important art is practically in permanent storage in places like Geneva Free Port, a collection of nondescript warehouses where the art can be sold and bought tax free.

And of course nobody ever gets to see it. Maybe not even the new buyer unless they’re particularly interested in art rather than just trading as an investment. The documentation shows that the Picasso is in Geneva building D section F room 37 shelf B, that’s good enough to buy it for $10M and sell it for $15M later.

Tax reasons. What you typically see isn't just any warehouse but a "freeport" -- a warehouse that's outside a country's tax jurisdiction.

The idea makes sense: you ship something (some part of a jet engine) from the US to Nigeria, and the trip involves a cargo plane change in Geneva. You don't want to pay import duty to switzerland just to ship it out a few days later so you store it in a guarded warehouse for those days and legally it never enters the country.

Then some folks got the idea that they could simply store other expensive assets in such a place. I assume most of it is for money laundering and/or big transactions for illegal goods.

My wife, as a musician, has similarly strong feelings about people collecting Guitars (and other instruments), there is nothing more depressing than an instrument sitting there unused and just looked at.

I understand the point, but would this mean people would just have a single instrument or two? Certainly people play their favorite and do not regularly cycle guitars on a schedule.

I'm sure there are people like that, but as a data point of one, she has four guitars and a piano. She has her favourite, but plays all of them very regularly, each for different things. Different music, different guitars.

A practicing musician owning multiple instruments, some of which may be used only rarely, is a different situation from a non-musician collecting instruments for their decorative or monetary value.

(Sometimes, collectors who own valuable instruments lend them to accomplished musicians, perhaps even on a long-term basis. I think that's admirable!)

On that note, the Mahwah Museum in Mahwah, NJ has a permanent Les Paul exhibit. You can arrange a private viewing where you get to play some of Les Paul’s personal guitars [1]. The price is very reasonable and it’s an amazing feeling to have these historic instruments enjoyed the way they’re meant to be.

It probably wouldn’t work for any instruments more fragile than a solid-body guitar, but I’m really glad to have had the experience and I wish there were more opportunities to do the same with other musicians’ gear hoards.

[1] https://mahwahmuseum.org/play-a-les-paul-guitar/

Like birds in cages. Birds are meant to fly, toys are meant to be played with by children, and musical instruments are meant to be played.

Yes, that same sentiment exists in many areas. In motorsports there is a very healthy Vintage Racing community. The ethos is that even completely unique historic racecars were built to race, not exist on a pedestal as garage queens. And although the rules in vintage racing are a bit more strict about contact and racing room, the racers go at it hammer and tongs — often very exciting on-track action.

I'm all for that attitude

> They could bury the Picasso in the foundation of a Waterville restaurant under renovation that his father co-owned.

I've heard a rumor that something is buried in the foundation of the Providence Civic Center. Didn't realize it was common to find a foundation that was awaiting concrete to dispose of things.

Brilliant story.

I assume the Vaseline was to remove/obscure potential fingerprints on the crate. A cursory Google didn't bring back and suggestion of this method though.

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