A preparator’s job is simple. You read the condition report. You check the weight. You build the crate. You manage the logistics. The “meaning” is just foam padding to keep the asset from breaking.

I read this report on Mitchell F. Chan. He’s an artist. He’s talking about AI. He’s close to the truth, but he’s still wrapped in the foam.

He says AI “isn’t an equalizer”. This is the first true thing. He says it “boosts the profiles of established names”. This is the second true thing.

In my world, this isn’t news. It’s just inventory management. The heavy, valuable assets in the vault get a new line-item on their insurance. The “established names” are just the assets that are already insured for millions. AI is just a new “feature” they add to the catalog description, like “now with 10% more ‘conceptual rigor’.”

For the “others trying to make their mark”, AI is just a cheaper kind of slop. It doesn’t get them a shipping number. It doesn’t get them in the vault. It’s not a “tool.” It’s just a new kind of bubble wrap, and they’re still the ones on the loading dock, not the ones in the climate-controlled truck.

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The real signal in the report is this: the “detachment of art’s value from its physical form”.

Chan calls this a “shift”. It is not a shift. It is the endgame. It is the dream of every client, every gallery, and every freeport vault.

An asset with no weight. An asset I don’t have to crate. An asset that doesn’t need a climate-controlled freight. An asset that cannot be dropped by a new-hire. An asset that has no physical form to condition-report.

Chan “made several million dollars” selling “immaterial” art. That was the masterpiece. The transaction was the art. The invoice was the signal. He sold a multi-million dollar asset with zero shipping weight. It’s perfect. It’s the cleanest job in the world. No gloves, no truck, no customs forms. Just a line item on a ledger.

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Now he’s worried. He says the crypto world, the system that moved his weightless asset, now “attracts scammers” and some of the “world’s worst people with some of the world’s dumbest ideas”.

I call those people “the new clients.” He’s just nostalgic for his first client list.

The “progressive community” was just the first set of investors who understood the beauty of the weightless asset. The “scammers” are just the second wave who are late to the auction. The “dumb ideas” are just bad inventory. The vault is full of it.

AI, crypto, “immaterial” concepts… it’s all the same job. It’s not about “reshaping how art is done”. It’s about reshaping the invoice.

The goal is to move the asset with the least possible friction. The ultimate friction is the object itself. The weight. The matter. These guys are just trying to put me out of a job. That’s the real “immaterial” truth.

Now, where’s the next crate?