Is this a fiddle?
At the weekend, the Times came up with "Sell! Twenty reasons to panic." Very amusing. As someone who attempts to scrape out a bit of music now and then, especially liked this one:
3 Florian Leonhard's violins: a London-based violin dealer is launching the $50 million (£25 million) Fine Violins Fund, which will invest in old violins. It's not that the value of violins doesn't appreciate, like wine. It's that the appetite for offbeat investments is at an unprecedented pitch. And how this is a hedge fund — how it guards against a downturn in the market — heaven knows. It's time to ask: is it the top of the market?
A fiddle as a financial instrument? The fund has a target of returning 8 to 12 percent a year and it promises that the historic violins it buys will be lent to up-and-coming players. Speculation with a heart of gold cannot represent the end times. One has to look elsewhere, but not too far. In an example of excess on a truly Roman scale, the White Cube Gallery displayed Damien Hirst's diamond skull, said to be worth $100 million. This is a sign not just of an overheated market, but of decadence. Sell!
