Here's a neat trick:<p>- Buy Painting X1, X2, X3, ... for 10K apiece.<p>- Your friend buys Painting Y1, Y2, Y3, ... for 10K apiece.<p>- You buy one of your friend's paintings for 1M. He does the same.<p>- Holy cow! "Market price" for the rest of your paintings is now 100x greater than it was yesterday.<p>- "Donate" as many of the paintings as you wish to the museum next door. Deduct the full value (now 1M) on your taxes.
Somebody should start a website that catalogs all of these museums. Then we the unwashed masses should all visit them. Then we will all find out whether these are actual museums or just tax avoidance schemes.
<a href="http://www.pier24.org" rel="nofollow">http://www.pier24.org</a><p>Great Photography collection in SF that meets this criteria it seems. Definitely worth a visit.
<i>"... Wealthy collectors, of course, have long saved millions of dollars in federal taxes by donating art and money to museums and foundations. But what distinguishes Mr. Brant’s center and a growing number of private tax-exempt exhibition spaces like it is that their founders can deduct the full market value of any art, cash and stocks they donate, even when the museums are just a quick stroll from their living rooms. ..."</i><p>Sounds suspiciously like money laundering. You don't think all that expensive Art, is really worth that amount do you?
In what way are paintings educational? Don't get me wrong I like looking at them, but I can't say I have learned any transferable skills, or that they've made me a better person or anything like that.