A short thread about performative philanthropy, based on this sale.https://twitter.com/donetodeath/status/1469698255290130437 …
Complex systems, wicked problems. Society, technology, science and more. @UNC professor. @NYTimes columnist. My newsletter is @insight: http://www.theinsight.org
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Felix Salmon Retweeted Chris Black
A short thread about performative philanthropy, based on this sale.https://twitter.com/donetodeath/status/1469698255290130437 …
Felix Salmon added,
What you're looking at here is a brand-new Patek Philippe watch from Tiffany's, retail price $52,635. It's in a limited edition of 170. You can buy it, very soon, from Tiffany locations in New York, Beverly Hills, and San Francisco.
This watch is the first to be sold, but it's otherwise identical to the other 169. Oh, there's one other difference: "One hundred percent of proceeds from the sale of this watch will benefit The Nature Conservancy."https://www.phillips.com/detail/patek-philippe/NY080121/1T …
In most charity auctions, the consignor gets the tax deduction. Not in this case. In this case, the *buyer* can claim a tax deduction of the difference between the hammer price and the retail price of $52,635.
The hammer price was $5.35 million, so the deduction comes to $5,297,365. The hammer price isn't the sale price. The sale price includes Phillips's "buyer's premium", which comes to $1,153,500. The total amount the buyer paid for the watch was therefore $6,503,500.
The buyer might well consider this purchase to be a nice way of donating money to a worthy cause, while getting a pretty watch into the bargain. But out of the $6.5 million paid for the watch, only $5.35 million is going to The Nature Conservancy.
Effectively, the buyer is paying $1.15 million to Phillips for the privilege of being seen to be donating $5.35 million to The Nature Conservancy. Oh, and somewhere in there a wristwatch is involved.
None of which matters to Patek Philippe or Tiffany's, both of whom get to boast that one of these watches sold at auction for $6.5 million. That should make it a lot easier to sell the 169 others at $52,635 apiece!
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