Great “Art” on the Cheap
The idea of the car as art came to me from Rory Sutherland’s take on architecture. As Rory puts it, a painting by a great artist can run at least 10,000 times the cost of an equivalent sized painting by an unknown artist. However, a building designed by a famous architect might only cost about 1 to 3 percent more than a nearby building designed by an unknown architect.
This is why Rory lives in a Grade 1 listed house. It’s by renowned eighteenth century architect Robert Adams. He’s got a four bedroom flat on the roof of the house built for the doctor of George III circa 1785. It was also the home of Napoleon III for a time.
Rory points out he didn’t pay anything extra for the architecture. Or even the landscaping done by Capability Brown. His next-door neighbor, an economist, noted the price for their property relative to a property in an identical location of the same size, but by an unknown architect, would command a negligible premium; perhaps in the range of zero, to at most 5 percent.
Applying Rory’s rule of thumb, the car can be art. Us mere mortals can acquire a masterpiece designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro for instance. The same artist who created the achingly beautiful Maserati Ghibli, also designed the first generation Lexus GS 300, which can be yours for around $3,500.00
