THE PRICE OF EVERYTHING
The business side of art goes under the microscope in this frank, incisive doc that puts the art scene in its sights on a mission to finally determine how exactly the world got this way.
Why is art priced so high? Who determines the value of the artist? Why are some of the world’s modern masterpieces locked away in private apartments? For a variety of reasons, the art market skyrocketed to absurd degrees and never looked back. As paintings, sculptures, and installations became traded like commodities, the way the work was perceived was forever changed, and the nature of achievement redefined. While the market has turned it’s anointed artists into wealthy celebrities, it has also determined their cultural relevance, and kept work away from the people meant to appreciate it. As a large Sotheby’s auction looms, filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn (known for his previous film MY ARCHITECT) examines the often troubling, sometimes thrilling, and exhaustively linked history of commerce and beauty from all points of view. Featuring a seemingly unprecedented and impressively thorough level of access to artists, auctioneers, collectors, curators, owners, traders, and hangers-on weaved together with intricate skill, Kahn displays a rare ability to coax a real kind of honesty and comfort from his subjects, allowing them to reveal all and answer the unanswerable.
In Competition: Best Documentary Feature, Pinkenson Award
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