Art in the economic history of the kingdom of Naples from the Eighteen to the Nineteenth Century

How much are the hypothetical capital gains of investments in art goods done in the past by considering their present economic values? To this question, different answers may be given depending from the type of investment and the period and places consider, i. e. the market prices and costs of production. In this paper I focus on art goods produced and/or purchased in the Kingdom of Naples from the XVII century to the XIX century, considering three different kinds of art goods: palaces with artistic value, ceramics and paintings.For the purposes of assessing the long run increase of value of the artistic and cultural goods. I have previously undertook a research on the purchasing power of Neapolitan money (ducats) relative to the years 1647-1861 (Mantovani M. 2000b) with reference to the current value of the lira. In Table n.1 I present the value of the ducat of the various years of that period of more than 200 years in Italian lire of 2000.