J. P. Morgan had style. Some art historian once ran to him with information that a Byzantine chalice he'd recently bought was a fake. "Well," snorted Morgan, "find me the man who forged it and order a few more." Morgan's aesthetics and investment strategies were one and the same: when in 1907 some speculators ran to him the information that there was a run on US banks, J.P. poured in his money, good after bad, to restore investor confidence, just as he'd done with the chalice.
Time was, when people trusted banks. Time was, when people trusted museums, which once were saving banks for art and have become investment banks for art. People even trusted art historians, who are the Moody's for Matisse.
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