Secret spaces of luxury: ignorance, free ports, and art

The chapter begins by elaborating the nature of ignorance and identifies secrecy as a form of ignorance arising from the suppression of knowledge, before moving to a consideration of the relationship between luxury and secret spaces. This is followed by a discussion of the free port as an example of a secret space. Through the way free ports are used to store real luxury goods, including fine art, and the secrecy that they afford, imaginary qualities are given to the luxuries they hold. The real and imagined dimensions of fine art stored in free ports are then explored and the implications of free ports as secret spaces of luxury for the nature of the ownership of works of art and for society are considered