Episode 823: Planet Monet : Planet Money Investors are pouring money into art, and a lot of it is disappearing into storage. We try to find out where the art goes, and why it goes there.

Episode 823: Planet Monet

Richard Mitchell/Richard Mitchell
ARCIS, a U.S. Foreign Trade Zone for the storage of cultural property and fine art.
Richard Mitchell/Richard Mitchell

The art market is going nuts. People are spending record amounts of money of paintings like Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi. But not everyone is rushing home to hang their new artwork up on their walls. A lot of buyers are storing their art in vast warehouses near airports. They're called, "freeports."

Freeports exist between countries, a sort of no man's land, which means you can store your artwork there as long as you want, without having to pay any taxes on it.

Where are these freeports? How do they work, and are they even legal? Today on the show, we try to find out.

Music: "Game Face" and "Mystery Cats"

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