John Singer Sargent (born 1856, died 1925) is considered one of the great American painters and the leading portrait painter of his generation. His work is displayed at leading art museums around the world. (Including the first portrait shown below, which is at the Detroit Institute of Arts, and which you should all go see!)

In addition to being owned by museums, some of his works are also owned by private individuals. For each of the parts below, consider the current (2023) market for Sargent paintings, and assume that forgeries are not possible.

(A)[2 points]Describe your intuition regarding the supply curve for Sargent paintings. Specifically, would you classify it as perfectly elastic, somewhat elastic, somewhat inelastic, or perfectly inelastic?

(B)[2 points]Suppose that a tragic fire at a warehouse destroys 10 Sargent paintings. What will happen to the price and quantity in this market? Can you say anything about which variable (P or Q) will change by a larger percentage?

(C)[2 points]Suppose that governments decide to impose a tax on all art transactions. Buyers of fine art must pay 10% of the purchase price as a tax to the government to help fund public art and education projects. Describe what this tax will do to the price and quantity of Sargent paintings. Will buyers or sellers end up bearing more of the tax burden?