Leonardo's lost bitcoin

On November 15, Leonardo's "Salvator Mundi" was sold for $450 mil, making the most expensive painting.  Rybolovlev made a pretty hefty return on his investment, he acquired it for $127.5 mil back in March 2013 from Yves Bouvier. So far, seems like a really good deal: 31% annual return.

The story gets even better, Bouvier had acquired the same painting just days before selling to Rybolovlev for $80 mil. I couldn't find his exact holding period, here I assumed 10 days, so his return on the deal is 2,445,328,453%... The interesting part about this deal is that supposedly Bouvier was acting on Rybolovlev's behalf and has broken his fiduciary duty to his client. Rybolovlev has accused Bouvier of overcharging. The previous owner of the painting is not happy either because they believe they could have sold directly to Rybolovlev for $127.5 mil. And then, there is Sotheby's - it was facilitating the deal. Both Rybolovlev and the previous owner are upset with their role.

The previous owner acquired the painting just for $10,000, - at the time it wasn't attributed to Leonardo.

What is the moral of the story? - We all keep on hearing how bitcoin is a bubble, ICOs are a scam. Crypto markets lack transparency and are subject to manipulation. Relative to the good old art market we are in a good shape.

And I think, Leonardo with his love for cryptography (he was using "mirror writing" in his own works) would have embraced the bitcoin. I wouldn't be surprised if one day we discover that he invented it 500 years before Satoshi.

Bitcoin (blockchain) may not save the world, but by disintermediating all the old good boys, who are used to receiving their dues for gatekeeping every industry, it will make this world a little bit more open to change.