[theshrike79]

Art is like Schrödinger's cat, its value is only determined when it changes owner.

If someone pays 1M€ for a piece of art, it is "valued at $1M" and you can use it for collateral for a loan at some percentage of its valuation.

Will it actually be 1M€ if it needs to be liquidated? Nobody knows. It can be worthless or it can be worth 10M€ - it all depends on what the next person is willing to pay for it. But until that point it's "worth" 1M€.

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This is why there are so many empty (commercial) properties, they were valued at a specific €/m2 price and were used to take loans based on that value.

Until they're rented/leased again, that is their worth and value. Could the owner get someone in the property by lowering the price? Definitely.

Would that also cause a rolling cascade of loans not having enough collateral to back them up? Yup.