On March 3rd, Ed Harris in the UK’s Evening Standard reported that New York’s Metropolitan Opera had put up two Chagall murals to guarantee loans to deal with losses in investment income. [source] Which then, within hours, unleashed Associated Press stories identifying a “trend” of individuals like Annie Leibovitz and Julian Schnabel, and undisclosed others, hawking their art against cash loans.

Have auction houses and specialty loan financiers become payday lenders to the affluent? What good will come of this when it comes time to pay down those loans? Who will end up as custodians of our cultural legacy?

One does what one can. Cash out and head for the hills.

Here at home, are such loan guarantees just over the not-so-distant horizon for Canadian collectors and possibly even institutions?