Word: bullion
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...teocuitlatl, "the gods' excrement"-as the Aztecs called gold-which Montezuma had given to the insatiable Cortes. It was shown in Europe in 1519, and nothing from it survives today. Like nearly all the gold artifacts that Spain dragged from the New World, it was melted down for bullion...
...sake. Capital growth, once regarded as an occasional and peripheral reward of the collector's passion, has now become its chief-and in many cases its only-purpose. The "successful" work of art is the one that most rapidly becomes a medium of exchange, its meaning certified by bullion...
Tapestries, in fact, were a kind of bullion, amassed by their owners as an investment. But what guaranteed the value of tapestry also led to its destruction: countless masterpieces of the weaver's art were burned during the French Revolution to render down their gold and silver threads. Others, seen as emblems of monarchical privilege, were simply destroyed. The Met's own Unicorn tapestries were taken by peasants and used to wrap potatoes. Even the Angers Apocalypse served as burlap to insulate orange trees and stuff cracks in walls. This exhibition is only a fragment of what Europe...
...noncrisis began with a run on gold. The flurry was fueled by rumors of a West German mark revaluation and fears that the Watergate uproar had left the U.S. with a paralyzed Government unable to stabilize the inflation-weakened value of the dollar. Within two days after bullion markets opened, the price of gold shot from about $96 per oz. to about $109 in Zurich, $110 in London and an astonishing $124 in Paris. The rise was accompanied by a decline in the price of the dollar. For example, the greenback dropped about 2? against the British pound, which rose...
Many investors might be attracted to this cut-rate gold trading. Since 1968 the price of "free-market" gold-that is, the bullion not held in monetary reserves but used for industrial purposes and speculation-has shot to historic highs. It is now $67.10 an ounce, v. the "official" price of $38 for the gold held by nations in their reserves. Last week Treasury Under Secretary Paul Volcker reiterated U.S. determination to keep the official rate steady, despite the desire of France and South Africa to raise it once again...