Top Tick

The art world loves a spectacle. But at what cost?<br /><br />In Top Tick art collector and former finance professional David Birkenshaw pulls back the velvet curtain on contemporary art's high-stakes circus where branding often matters more than brushwork. Blending personal insight with auction data he reveals a volatile marketplace in which only the top 1 percent of brand-name artists (think Warhol Hirst or Basquiat) hold their value while the rest quietly vanish from gallery walls-and balance sheets.<br /><br />From multimillion-dollar bananas to crypto-funded publicity stunts Top Tick explores how hype wealth signaling and fashion routinely outpace artistic merit. This isn't a takedown of contemporary art. Rather it's a clear-eyed look at how it's traded flaunted and forgotten. A cautionary tale disguised as market analysis Top Tick is essential reading for anyone who still believes investment-grade art is anything but an oxymoron.