Comments on: BRAINSTORM http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/07/brainstorm/ Macro Perspective on the Capital Markets, Economy, Geopolitics, Technology, and Digital Media Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:27:20 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Chief Tomahawk http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/07/brainstorm/comment-page-1/#comment-189842 Chief Tomahawk Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:36:08 +0000 http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/?p=31039#comment-189842 Too bad it doesn't look like Alan Greenspan in addition to being produced 3 years ago. Then Bill Fleckenstein would've had his cover for "Greenspan's Bubbles". Here's a 2005 picture of Alan for comparison purposes: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic-art/86112/123846/Alan-Greenspan-being-presented-the-Presidential-Medal-of-Freedom-by Too bad it doesn’t look like Alan Greenspan in addition to being produced 3 years ago. Then Bill Fleckenstein would’ve had his cover for “Greenspan’s Bubbles”.

Here’s a 2005 picture of Alan for comparison purposes:

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic-art/86112/123846/Alan-Greenspan-being-presented-the-Presidential-Medal-of-Freedom-by

]]> By: Daniel Grant http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/07/brainstorm/comment-page-1/#comment-189810 Daniel Grant Sat, 04 Jul 2009 11:28:17 +0000 http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/?p=31039#comment-189810 It is a minor bit of fallout from the rise in commodity prices, which has sent the cost of bronze, a copper-tin alloy, to levels unthinkable a decade ago, even though they are now below their peak. Dale Smith, owner of the Artworks Foundry in Berkeley, Calif., says he spent $1.60 a pound for bronze in July 2005 and $4 in July 2008, while Marjee Levine, manager of the New England Sculpture Service in Boston, saw the price go from $2 to "almost $5" in the same span. The price is now about $2.50 to $3. Indeed, the worldwide demand for copper -- which makes up 95% of bronze -- has even led to the thefts of outdoor sculptures for their scrap-metal value. Besides the sculptors' labor and reputation, the main ingredients in a sculpture's price are the costs of whatever it is made from and the fee for having a foundry cast it. Given bronze's high price, sculptors' traditional rule of thumb -- that a work should be priced at three times the casting cost -- doesn't make sense. "If I had done Brainstorm [which is still unsold] in bronze, I'd have to charge $70,000, instead of $20,000," Wagman says. That higher amount probably would have repelled his regular customer base, which usually forks over $9,000 to $25,000 for his works. But high cost is the mother of invention...and clever patinas. It is a minor bit of fallout from the rise in commodity prices, which has sent the cost of bronze, a copper-tin alloy, to levels unthinkable a decade ago, even though they are now below their peak. Dale Smith, owner of the Artworks Foundry in Berkeley, Calif., says he spent $1.60 a pound for bronze in July 2005 and $4 in July 2008, while Marjee Levine, manager of the New England Sculpture Service in Boston, saw the price go from $2 to “almost $5″ in the same span. The price is now about $2.50 to $3. Indeed, the worldwide demand for copper — which makes up 95% of bronze — has even led to the thefts of outdoor sculptures for their scrap-metal value.

Besides the sculptors’ labor and reputation, the main ingredients in a sculpture’s price are the costs of whatever it is made from and the fee for having a foundry cast it. Given bronze’s high price, sculptors’ traditional rule of thumb — that a work should be priced at three times the casting cost — doesn’t make sense. “If I had done Brainstorm [which is still unsold] in bronze, I’d have to charge $70,000, instead of $20,000,” Wagman says. That higher amount probably would have repelled his regular customer base, which usually forks over $9,000 to $25,000 for his works.

But high cost is the mother of invention…and clever patinas.

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