All that "modern art", NFT, antique and other similar things is a money surrogate for elite, free of tax, tracking etc. If they need to "print" more "money", they just take some random daub and literally announce it as "great work of art" and set crazy price. They agreed to account it at that price. It does not matter, where the first money paid for that crap goes because they print them. Since that moment, this object become something like a banknote of the very high value for elite. So, when, say, some banker want to pay some senator some millions of dollars, they don't need to make their hands dirty with money, banker, just give some crappy picture to senator, and that's all. Since there is an agreement among elite about the value of that object, senator always could sell it at least for the agreement price, or even more or exchange it for, say some bloody job. Yes, you can't buy a food, or even a car in exchange for such object, but people who use them as money surrogate have enough usual money to spend for usual needs.