Your Favourite Song Is Collateral

A catalogue of fresh hits was lent 65 per cent of its value. Two years later it is on watch for a downgrade.

Priceless Means Zero

In 1962 the Mona Lisa was valued at USD 100 million for insurance. Nobody ever bought the policy.

The Italian Bank That Guarantees Local Art

Mandatory portfolio yields vs. public heritage: How the 1990 Amato Reform tied Umbrian restoration to commercial bank dividends.

Britain Underwrites More Art Than It Funds

£6.06bn of indemnified art against a £1.98bn department budget, and no claim crystallised all year.

Nothing at the Fair Got More Expensive

The second Fincul Stress Index reads 64 out of 100, up six points, and three of its five components did not move at all.

The Arts Are Funded Twelve Months at a Time

Five per cent of the arts distributors' lottery commitments run beyond one year. For sport it is 57

Nobody Tells the Panel Which Tax

195 works, $795.5m claimed, and a net correction of 2 per cent that hides a gross one of 15.

Britain Caps the Museum, Not the Series

GBP 12,993 per exhibition. GBP 1.61 million per television programme. Both come from the same tax code.

The British Museum Owns Almost Nothing

Its collection stands at GBP 1,163 million. Seventy-nine per cent of that arrived without a single object moving.

The Art Market Now Has a Stress Score

Christie's sold 91 percent of everything it offered. The first reading still came back at 58 out of 100

Vienna Does Not Subsidise Opera

EUR 79 million. That is what Vienna pays the Staatsoper, every season, without negotiation.

Bank of America's Best Collateral Hangs on a Wall

When the Appraiser Is Also the Lender

The valuation is free. That should be the first clue.

USD 35 million. USD 20,000. Nothing in between.

The Fed has named Taylor Swift. It has never named Art Basel

A USD 2 billion pop star, a quieter Fincul, and what comes next.