Daring Tango, Art IPO, and Grim Titan 🩰

In late July, art enthusiasts with a few hundred dollars burning a hole in their pockets will have a chance to own a piece of artistic history. Brace yourselves, because Francis Bacon's masterpiece, "Three Studies for a Portrait of George Dyer," is about to hit the stock market. That's right, folks, it's going public!

Artex, the daring company behind this, will list the iconic painting on a specially designed art exchange stationed in Liechtenstein. Valued at a cool $55 million, this painting is set to make waves.

Now, let's dive into the intriguing world of art IPOs. 

Artex is offering investors a slice of the masterpiece by selling 385,000 shares at $100 apiece through brokers and banks. This represents a whopping 70% of all class B shares in the painting. Retail trading opens its doors in late July, and brace yourselves for some rollercoaster action as the share price dances to the tune of supply and demand, just like the wild fluctuations of Apple or IBM shares.

But here's where things get a bit different. 

While a company's stock price is tied to its performance, paintings operate on a different wavelength. These rare treasures tend to appreciate over time, simply by gracing the walls of museums and avoiding any mishaps. 

So, why would anyone be clamoring for shares in art? Well, there's the allure of a "takeover bid," where a private collector might be hell-bent on owning the Bacon and offers a premium to buy out all the shareholders. That's when the stock price skyrockets. On the flip side, if an art expert cries "forgery," the stock price takes a nosedive.

There’s a scope for a new market of art IPOs

• There are at least 8,000 art collectors around the world, with an estimated 53% having over 500 artworks each.
• Freeports in Zurich and Geneva store over $10 billion worth of high-value items, including art.
• Some private collections may also contain stolen artworks, such as works by Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Picasso.

Authorities have confirmed the grim discovery of broken fragments of the OceanGate Titan submersible near the Titanic wreckage. 

The five passengers onboard the vessel are all dead. Among the victims are OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, British explorer Hamish Harding, Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman Dawood. 

This devastating incident raises questions about the future of the burgeoning extreme tourism industry. 

The adventure tourism sector had been projected to skyrocket from $322 billion in 2022 to over $1 trillion in 2023. Popular destinations such as the Titanic, Mount Everest, the South Pole, and even space have enticed thrill-seekers. Twelve deaths have already been recorded on Everest this year and five individuals are still missing. But wealthy adventurers might still not shy away from perilous journeys and uncharted territories.

Fun Fact: Stockton Rush has been added to the Wikipedia article that lists inventors killed by their own inventions.

Spending time with family is of the utmost importance to people across the US, with a whopping 73% of Americans describing it as “one of the most important things” to them personally, according to recent data from Pew Research Center. 

This is a clear sign that, although the amount of time we spend alone tends to increase as we age, the hours spent with family are of very high value. 

• Only 32% of respondents considered practicing religious faith as "one of the most important things" personally.
• Being physically active and experiencing nature were valued by 31% and 29% of those surveyed, respectively.
• 66% of Americans considered being successful in their career as "one of the most" or "very" important, surpassing involvement in creative activities (43%) and social/political causes (28%).