How’s this for a fish story

I’m always intrigued by those art auctions where paintings go for astronomical prices. Good for the collector/seller. Not much benefit for a dead artist. A good enough deal for a live artist, as those high prices will transfer to their future works and their wallets.

If you’re someone who wants the work of art to have and to hold, to cherish and to keep, well, good luck for you.

If you’re a gambling type investor who’s hoping that the prices keep going up, well, good luck to you.

While on some level, I don’t get the sky-high prices for a work of art, on another level – art lover or investor – I do understand. And that understanding is largely based on the fact that a work of art – unless it’s Banksy’s self-destructing painting (here’s Pink Slip on that subject) – is tangible, lasting.

But a crazy price for a fish is quite another kettle of fish.

A 278-kilogram bluefin tuna sold for 333.6 million yen ($3.1 million) at a Tokyo fish market Saturday. The record price -- which equates to about $5,000 a pound -- is more than double the previous high set in 2013, according to Masayuki Fukuda, an official in charge of trading operations at the Tokyo market. (Source: Bloomberg)

That’s about 600 pounds of bluefin tuna, translating into $10,000 per eight ounce serving. In sushi terms, we’re talking somewhere between $300 and $400 per piece.

This 600 pounds overstates the yield on that fish, and understates the cost, given the presence of fish guts, teeth and eyes.

Understated/overstated, $300 is an awful lot to pay for a piece of tuna sushi. Think I’ll stick with the California roll, thanks. That and canned tuna.

Such a crazy-high price…

The bluefin tuna is an endangered species and all that. So of course it’s worth more than, say, farmed salmon. And New Year’s is the big go fish day at the Tokyo fish market. But still.

Anyway, unlike a work for art, fish (even if you freeze it) is pretty much a use it or lose it item.

The restaurants are, of course, getting into these bidding wars for the publicity, not because they can get away with charging customers the actual cost of the fish. The Sushizanmai chain, proud owner of the most expensive fish in history, is planning on making the high-priced tuna available at their regular prices.

The company is conceding that they may have overpaid.

"We did too much," Kiyoshi Kimura, the owner of the chain, told reporters. "I expected it would be between 30 million yen and 50 million yen, or 60 million yen, but it ended up five times more expensive," according to television footage of him speaking to the media.

One might quite sensibly ask whether the publicity that accrues to overpaying 5x is worth it, but for Kimura, known as Japan’s “Tuna King”, it apparently is. He’s been the high bidder at the New Year’s Day auction for the past eight years.

I can only imagine what the going rate will be for the last bluefin tuna in the world.

Seems crazy to me, but what do I know about sushi chain PR in Japan?

Oh, what a world we live in.