by JEFF RIAN
Last April, I had to replace my 13-year-old daughter’s iPhone 4, which had died. I was told by a salesperson that iPhones have built-in obsolescence, meaning that Emma’s might have self-destructed. I was surprised and nervous about my iPhone 5, which is also what I bought for her.
A few weeks earlier at a dinner party, I was telling a pretty high-end art dealer about an artist I’d recommended to another high-level gallery owner, who quite liked the work. But, as I later learned, my friend’s works weren’t expensive enough for that level of operation. The dealer I was speaking to told me he’d organized a show that cost him €100,000 and sold well but didn’t return a profit. He needs to sell more works in the upper five-to-seven-figure range. An artist he represents, sitting next to him, overheard us and was disgusted by our talk of…