What relates the overpaying of the painting Salvator Mundi to the lack of modern day geniuses?
Relation itself. It is interconnectivity that allows the one and prevents the other. The ubiquity of
the internet and global commercialism lead to the sensationalization of all things, and cloud the
minds of would-be geniuses with distraction and desire for recognition. This is a struggle that
has only begun to plague our society, and will bog down countless future creatives, and the
systems they operate in.
One such system is the art world. The nebulous construct that cycles art through collectors,
museums, and artists themselves has arguably been shattered. Always a method for investors
to reliably grow money, in recent times, the popularity has skyrocketed, leading to uninformed
investors. Art tends to increase in value not as a rule, but instead because it has carefully been
selected. In 2020, fed by demands for racial representation in museums from the BLM
movement, and low interest rates flooding the art market as a whole with money, a bubble
emerged. Speculation soared in the world of black portraiture painting, and as bubbles do, it
eventually popped, leaving many artists and investors scrambling for next steps. (Corbett)
This financial disaster was both tragic as well as completely emblematic of the modern art
market. Although this example was caused by speculation and amateur investors, these are not
the only threats to the system. Oversaturation and rising costs in general have destabilized the
global art market. (Kazakina) That is not to say that money doesn't flow. As seen in the colossal
$400m purchase of Da Vinci's Salvator Mundi, there are clearly individuals prepared to sink
ridiculous sums with no hopes of gains. These investors have a very different motive. They
seek not profits, but recognition. (Schneider) As with the pursuit of black portraiture to follow a
speculative trend, the purchases themselves have become sensations. The buyer of the
painting assumed, correctly, that their purchase would lead to fame, be it in the form of articles
written about them, or despite the anonymous purchase, their name simply circling through the
art and financial worlds.
Names have always circled, but never at the rate and with the ease as of today. The internet
and social media are formidable weapons at such a task. As every aspect of our lives have
shifted onto or been influenced by these hyperobjects, behaviours and societal construction
have followed. The previous examples have illustrated how this has intersected with an
increasingly commercial globe to create bubbles and waves in the art market. But how have
these platforms themselves influenced the individuals within such a system? One prominent
aspect lies in the clouding of the mind.
The internet, but social media in particular has warped how both the viewer and artist interact
with art. It certainly has democratized the process, giving voice to many who were previously
disenfranchised, but has also had untold effects on the art itself. Social media is both a privilege
and opportunity for an artist to grow following, and a burden. Similarly to the trends of art
investment, individuals are incentivized to follow trends, for recognition and financial reasons.
(Yang) Additionally, social media has deeply changed the way we intake and process
information.
With its near ubiquity, it has become both increasingly difficult and potentially obstructive to
avoid the influence of social media. This has had clear effects on our cognitive abilities,
particularly with the current trend of short form video content. (Yan et al.) These cognitive
effects extend in particular to artists. Something characteristic of many artists, but in particular
those we consider genius is an almost desperate desire for self examination, on an individual
and societal level. Artistic geniuses of the past, such as Da Vinci and Michelangelo have
struggled, doubted, been curious, and thought differently than their entire generations.
(Donahue) With technology that seeks to homogonize, and standardize expression, future such
geniuses will likely be few and far between, if ever present again.
The interconnectivity of our modern world presents a paradox. We have unprecedented access
to information and democratized platforms for creativity, yet these very systems threaten a
standardization of expression and homogenization of thought. The transformation the art
market faces, from the bubble and subsequent burst of black portraiture painting to the
recognition driven purchase of Da Vinci's Salvator Mundi serves as a microcosm for a much
larger societal struggle. As demonstrated, this globalized, internet fueled path has destabilized
established systems, and even more critically, is compromising the cognitive and creative
faculties of future generations. In the end, the spectacular and irrational price paid for Salvator
Mundi and the death of true artistic genius are not independent phenomena, but rather two
symptomatic extremes of a globally interconnected system.
Works Cited
Corbett, Rachel. “How the Black Portraiture Boom Went Bust.” Vulture, 8 May 2025,
www.vulture.com/article/art-market-black-portraiture-boom-burst.html.
Donahue, Nathanial. “Florentine Artists on Film.” World Film Locations: Florence, edited by
Alberto Zambenedetti, Intellect Books, 2014.
Kazakina, Katya. “The Storm Hits the Art Market | Artnet News.” Artnet News, 8 Sept. 2025,
news.artnet.com/market/intelligence-report-storm-2025-2684512.
Schneider, Tim. “Why Would Anyone Pay $450 Million for the “Salvator Mundi”? Because
They’re Not Buying the Painting.” Artnet News, 17 Nov. 2017, news.artnet.com/market/why-
buy-salvator-mundi-1153085.
Yan, Tingting, et al. “Mobile Phone Short Video Use Negatively Impacts Attention Functions: An
EEG Study.” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, vol. 18, no. 18, 27 June 2024, p. 1383913,
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38993329/, https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2024.1383913.
Yang, Yuqi. “The Impact of Social Media on the Commercialization and Market Value of Visual
Art.” Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media, vol. 40, Mar. 2024, pp. 144–
150, https://doi.org/10.54254/2753-7048/40/20240735.
