Narco Treasure: Is It Fine Art Or Ghetto Trash?

The Wall Street Journal recently reported on the exceedingly lavish lives of many Mexican drug dealing kingpins as revealed by the Servicio de Administración y Enajenación de Bienes aka the SAE. The SAE handles the bizarrely awesome assets seized by the Mexican government as the spoils of the narco wars.  With cave-like underground hot-tub complexes complete with faux stalactites, fireplaces and glass skylights looking up at pet lions or tigers chilling in a cage above, Mexican drug dealers seem to live a life of delicious splendor beyond one’s wildest dreams.

SAE manager, Omar Yussaf affirms what we’ve all been hoping, “You realize that the mansions in movies like Scarface aren’t exaggerations. The real thing can be more amazing.”

In addition to the wonderland-like homes, Mexican drug dealers collect extravagant toys and oddities that can stir the soul and/or shock the conscience. Is this narco treasure fine art or ghetto trash? Will it stand the test of time or be regarded as silly, ugly, new money bling?

Perhaps a key distinction is in whether the motivation behind the grandiosity is merely to display one’s apparent worth like a peacock or rather to reflect an expression of a deeper meaning like fear of death, a connection to God or love for another person.

Moreover, is the prevalence of eccentric bling a predominantly Mexican or Latino quandary, or is it obvs that all drug dealing cultures and maybe even just rich people in general fill their lives with crazy, crappy, conspicuous consumption? What would you buy if you rapidly increased your cash flow such that you could satisfy all your perverse whims? Would you be like us and get a pet tiger post haste? Or would you go shopping for an original Georgia O’Keefe?