The Economist.
Hi there, it's Jason Palmer here, co-host of The Intelligence, our daily news and current affairs podcast.
This is Editors' Picks, you're about to hear an article
from the latest edition of the Economist read aloud.
Enjoy.
Just east of Tel Aviv sits a cave.
It was discovered during roadworks in 2000 and found to contain the oldest known hearth
around which families probably cooked meals some 300,000 years ago.
Archaeologists found animal bones and primitive tools, which was not surprising.
What was startling was a cache of brightly colored pebbles that showed no signs of use
and indeed appeared too small for any Stone Age purpose.
Their value was aesthetic.
Someone had collected them.
William Goetzmann, who teaches finance at Yale and has written extensively about art markets,
suggests that the impulse to collect is something ancient and ingrained in us, maybe biologically driven.
Cards, coins, stamps, memorabilia, posters, these draw obsessives everywhere
and for years were usually handled by small specialist dealers.
Increasingly, however, auction houses are getting in on the action.
In March, Christie's sold rock memorabilia that Jim Irsay,
a late American sports team owner, spent his life amassing,