7/ At a dinner with a renowned media mogul we had a debate about CRYPTO vs ART.

He thought crypto had no intrinsic value, and art had value—because it was scarce. ..

8/ I pointed out that a friend next to me @scottbelsky could publicly promise to make 1 and ONLY 1 sketch drawing.

@bgurley jokingly dubbed it the “Lone Belsky”

The mogul said it was worthless b/c it lacked provenance—which is to say it lacked a story (intersubjective belief)

9/ We argued money was no different. Though he was unconvinced. Possibly biased as he owns much art—which makes this story interesting because...

10/ Which leads me to an incredible recent $16.8M anonymous sale of a 1983 composition by a French artist Rippier Papel. Papel widely unknown except by elite collectors + dealers. He made only 1 work of each kind and hid secrets in each work which was revealed...

11/...in a subsequent work and only to the buyer—a genius move making collecting sets extremely valuable.

This is Rippier Papel “Passage to L”. Valued at $16.8M.

Analysts and scholars have been pouring over the details...

12/...which are also elaborated in a 2nd accompanying work “Passage to L: Force of Removal” valued even higher at $17.1M.

13/ A third work has not yet gone to private sale but is expected to exceed the combined $33.9M

14/ Subjectively you may believe this is not worth much, but some believe this is worth as a triptych $50M+...

15/ I captured an exclusive inside look at the studio of Rippier Papel...

(aka paper ripping) in action ;)

Love this new provocative public art installation by Rippier Papel.