I dunno about that. In the late 1950's you could buy a royal blue Colt Python for about $1100 in today's dollars. A Colt 3-5-7, also a finely crafted and finished gun, was about $825 in 2018 dollars. By comparison to today's offerings either of those guns are works of art.
I think it's sad that we seem to have lost the art of making finely crafted things without them having an absolutely astronomical price tag.
It all depend, it's all in the eye of the beholder, last night i bought a H&K Mark 23 45 ACP brand new unfired made in Germany for a very good price.
For me this a work of art by it's stellar performance, i like beautifull revolvers but high performance and enginering is really what interest me.