The scarcity factor really drives returns over times. When an artist dies, the only thing thats happened is that they can't produce work any more. And that takes ten, twenty, thirty years to play out. Something lie bat even longer in sern cases, right? Like mone is still going out of circulation a hundred years later. That was the most expensive painting effer to sell. I don't know what people would consider the most valuable piece of art in the world to day....