> before the prices inevitably have to climb as demand overtakes the scarcity on the production side.
This definitely seems like an area where you might expect Baumol's cost disease to operate. China labor costs are increasing steadily and there's no obvious labor pool to replace them, and as far as hand painted paintings go, there's also no obvious productivity improvements which could keep costs constant - they already seem to be painted about as fast as possible. (So Instapainting's dabbling in robot painting can't fix Baumol's cost disease because the paintings will no longer be 'handmade'.)
This definitely seems like an area where you might expect Baumol's cost disease to operate. China labor costs are increasing steadily and there's no obvious labor pool to replace them, and as far as hand painted paintings go, there's also no obvious productivity improvements which could keep costs constant - they already seem to be painted about as fast as possible. (So Instapainting's dabbling in robot painting can't fix Baumol's cost disease because the paintings will no longer be 'handmade'.)