anaheim-bulletin 1959-04-16

YOUR MONEY'S WORTH Spectacular Splurge of Picture Buying for Investments Reigns By SYLVIA PORTER We were wandering around the Hammer Galleries, studying the paintings of Vlaminck, one of today's popular French post-impressionists. Suddenly, a man's voice rose above the usual din at a New York exhibit. "I don't care whether the prices do seem high. I think he should be bought as a good investment and a hedge against inflation." "Hah!" said my companion, Wilfred May. "Another person who has succumbed to the myth that art is an investment or inflation hedge. Few assets could qualify less for the classifications. Saying that a picture is an investment because it skyrockets in price is as ridiculous as saying a bet on a horse is an investment because the horse wins." And then May—who as executive editor of the "Commercial & Financial Chronicle" and a collector of pictures for fun is at ease in both the investment and art worlds—proceeded for the rest of the evening to argue vehemently that buying paintings is pure speculation. In all history there never has been so spectacular a splurge of picture buying as there is today. This past October a single painting by Cezanne ("Boy in a Red Vest") sold in London for $616,000. This past November, a single painting by Picasso ("Mother and Child") sold in New York for $152,000 or a year — they already can realize a handsome profit." What's so cockeyed then? If a buyer of a popular artist can quadruple his money in 10 years and simultaneously have the joy of owning an exquisite work — what's so wrong? "What's wrong," says May, "is that the purchase of art can't be called an investment by the very definition of the word, for 'an investment assumes that you're buying an asset to preserve your capital and get a satisfactory return, that you can evaluate your purchase according to precise rules, and that you have a ready market in which to buy or sell. By no stretch of imagination can a painting be said to fit this definition." In the first place, he argues, the values of paintings are primarily determined by FASHION — and changes in fashions in paintings are utterly unpredictable. The more than three-quarter million dollars paid for Gainsborough's "Blue Boy" in 1928 "wouldn't bring a fraction of that price today. Gainsborough isn't in fashion." Such coveted etchers of earlier this century as Whistler "have gone through devastating price declines." Paintings go through fashion cycles without definable causes and "guessing a fashion cycle right is blind good luck." In the second place, he insists, paintings have nothing even approaching a market in the sense In all history there never has been so spectacular a splurge of picture buying as there is today. This past October a single painting by Cezanne ("Boy in a Red Vest") sold in London for $616,000. This past November, a single painting by Picasso ("Mother and Child") sold in New York for $152,000. So ragingly popular are the impressionists and post-impressionists—Picasso, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Renoir, Degas, Manet, Matisse, Gauguin, Utrillo, etc. — that $100,000 a painting is considered "cheap!" Arts sales running into the high seven figures now make headlines around the world. And, emphasized Victor Hammer, director of the Galleries, when he came over to dispute with May,"The big-name artists such as you're mentioning are becoming rarer and rarer as they disappear into private collections and museums. The prices have been going up not only sensationally but also steadily decade after decade, and middle-income buyers are coming into the art world now in increasing numbers. We have sold little Renoirs and Utrillos to middle-income buyers on the installment plan and by the time they finish paying off — in six months In the second place, he insists, paintings have nothing even approaching a market in the sense that other investments — bonds, stocks, etc — have markets. "Sure, investments have 'bugs,' but even in a sharply breaking stock market you can sell at a definite, established price and you can get out. With paintings, you're at the mercy of an extremely limited set of buyers and they may simply disappear when the paintings start to go out of fashion. Then you're stuck." And so I asked, as the evening ended, you would warn all of us against getting in on this worldwide art boom? "Buy art," said May, "for pleasure, for enjoyment and expect your return will be in this form. If you make money selling a painting later, figure you're lucky and just getting a windfall!" (Distributed 1959, by The Hall Syndicate, Inc.) (All Rights Reserved) The Butcher Shop's BUTCHER BOY SAYS: OUR MEATS ARE PURE! WE ONLY TRADE WHERE WE CAN GET THE HIGHEST GRADE! USDA Choice SIRLOIN TIP T-BONE PORTERHOUSE 99 c.lb. Extra Fresh and Always Lean USDA Choice SIRLOIN TIP STEAKS 99 lb. T-BONE PORTERHOUSE Extra Fresh and Always Lean GROUND SHOULDER 55 lb. USDA Choice ROUND STEAK 89 lb. or SIRLOIN STEAK Table Brand Sliced Bacon 49 lb. USDA Choice SWISS STEAK 79 lb. or RIB STEAK Open Sun. thru Wed., 9 a.m.-7 p.m.—Thurs. thru Sat., 9 to 9 BUTCHER SHOP Fines Quality Meats 2023 ANAHEIM-OLIVE ROAD Iraq’s Oil Fields Pressing World Qu By PHIL NEWSOM UPI Foreign News Editor As Communism tightens its grip on Iraq, one of the most pressing world questions is, what happens now to Iraq's oil? It is an important question because Iraq sits in the middle of the great Middle Eastern oil pool and, by itself, is the world's sixth largest oil producing country. This correspondent, on a recent visit to Baghdad, put that question directly to Dr. Hashim Jawad, Iraq's urbane and sophisticated foreign minister. His reply was: "Iraq's ties are with the West. Most of our income comes from oil and our oil goes entirely to the West. Our pipelines are directed toward the West." At this moment, no one can predict the future course of the Iraq government. Big Freezeout American news correspondents and American business alike are being frozen out of Iraq and Western prospects there now appear dim indeed. But, so far as oil is concerned, there are three elements which today force Iraq to maintain its ties with the Western nations. One is the oil pipelines. The pipelines handling Iraq oil run from Iraq to Syria and thence to Mediterranean outlets in Syria its own oil markets. A sad example is Iraq's oil-rich neighbor, Iran. In 1951, under then-Premier Mohammed Mossadegh, Iran nationalized its oil and repudiated its contract with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company of Britain. Iran soon found it had neither the technicians to draw out the oil nor the facilities to market it. No Income Taxes By 1954, and with U.S. aid, the dispute finally was settled. But by that time, Iran practically was bankrupt and the world had managed splendidly without the oil on which Iran's economy depended. Under its 50-50 deal with British, American and other oil companies, Iran today takes in well over 200 million dollars annually in oil revenues. By law, 70 percent of these revenues must be diverted to national development projects. As a result, income taxes in Iraq are almost non-existent. The pipelines through Syria provide an interesting sidelight to the Iraq oil question. So long as relations between Iraq and the United Arab Republic remain in their strained state, Iraq must always have the nagging worry that the Syrians might some day cut the lines. They did that during the Suez crisis and the cost to Iraq ran to about $700 million per year. Y SHOW — Lovely Joyce Sellers admires the piece of drift-art found by skindivers in Southern California and shown at Californiia Hobby Show now at Shrine Exposition Hall in Angeles. Thousands of hobbyists and hundreds of hobbies are play in this biggest Hobby Show of all time. COMMUNITY PROPERTY WILLE, Tenn. (UPI)—The Vols of the Southern nation are a minor league drive that helped save the game club with 4,876 owners in Nashville. Big Freezeout American news correspondents and American business alike are being frozen out of Iraq and Western prospects there now appear dim indeed. But, so far as oil is concerned, there are three elements which today force Iraq to maintain its ties with the Western nations. One is the oil pipelines. The pipelines handling Iraqi oil run from Iraq to Syria and thence to Mediterranean outlets in Syria and Lebanon. There is no connection with Russia or any of its satellites except via Basra and the Persian Gulf. A second, and impelling one, is the fact that Russia at this moment has no particular use for the Iraqi oil. Russia is itself an oil exporting nation and has immense and still untapped oil reserves of its own. And a third is that presently it would be almost impossible for Iraq to nationalize its oil and seek projects. As a result, income taxes in Iraq are almost non-existent. The pipelines through Syria provide an interesting sidelight to the Iraq oil question. So long as relations between Iraq and the United Arab Republic remain in their strained state, Iraq must always have the nagging worry that the Syrians might some day cut the lines. They did that during the Suez crisis and the cost to Iraq ran to about $700,000 per day. Will Look To West If this should happen again, it will be to the West and not to Russia that Iraq looks for aid. In fact, Jawad grimly told this correspondent: "We should regard such an event as serious indeed. But, in this case, it would not be Iraq and the U.A.R. alone. The big powers would be involved." There seems ample reason to believe that Iraq even now may GIGANTIC GET ACQUAINTED SALE! ALL OF THESE TOYS AT SPECIAL GET ACQUAINTED PRICE 58 c.ea. 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HOWARDS TOWN BROADWAY SHOPPING NORTH END OF THE Fields Presents World Question be attempting to increase either its income or its oil output at the expense of the Western companies. But, for now, it seems certain Iraq oil will continue to flow to the West. A possibility for the distant future is that some day it might be useful to Red China. In that case, the flow might be reversed. Freeway Victim Lost For Hours at Night LOS ANGELES (UPI)—Charles K. Abboud, 58, a motorist from Omaha, Neb., was lost for seven hours in the labyrinth of the freeway system, he told police today. Abboud showed up at police headquarters before dawn to ask for directions. He said he had been trailing the car of his son, Ray, 31, on the San Bernardino Freeway but lost it on a turnoff. Then, said Abboud, a mailman on vacation, he drove back and forth on the freeways, going from one to another, finally finding his way to the police station. want to SELL at a PROFIT? ABOUT REALTOR PROFIT? 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