One painting sells for $450 million. Another, by an equally talented artist, can’t find a buyer. This doc explores who decides what art is worth.
Tim Ferriss and Kevin Rose recommended this one. Ferriss said: “It is often funny, sometimes nauseating, and always entertaining.”
Trailer for “The Price of Everything”
You Can’t Make This Sh!t Up
- A little-known Leonardo da Vinci painting, “Salvator Mundi,” sells for more than $450 million at auction. It blew past prices for works by Picasso, Basquiat, and nearly every other artist in history.
- The documentary gets rare behind-the-scenes access to artists at completely different stages of fame. Jeff Koons sees his sculptures sell for tens of millions while former art-world superstar Larry Poons struggles with a market that has largely moved on.
- The doc’s title comes from Oscar Wilde’s famous line: “There are a lot of people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
Watch “The Price of Everything”
You can watch “The Price of Everything” on Kanopy, Apple TV, Prime Video, and other streaming services.
Ratings:
- My Rating: 92/100
- IMDB Rating: 7.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 95/100 (Users); 92/100 (Critics)
Director’s Note: Nathaniel Kahn directs this look inside the contemporary art world.
Release Date: January 19, 2018 (Sundance Film Festival); later released by HBO.
Other Unique Stuff
- Rather than focusing on deceased masters like Picasso or Van Gogh, the documentary emphasizes living artists, showing how reputations—and prices—are actively built in real time.
- The doc avoids taking sides in the “modern art is a scam” debate. Instead, it reveals how artists, dealers, critics, museums, collectors, and auction houses all influence what eventually becomes culturally—and financially—valuable.
Wrap Up:
This one is all about money, status, psychology, and why humans collectively decide that one canvas is worth $500 while another is worth half a billion dollars.
If you enjoy documentaries about economics, markets, or how value gets created, this one is worth your time.
Thanks for reading!
Heather Fenty, Guest Writer, Daily Doc