I grew up in a house with expensive furniture, and it wasn't the most awesome experience. There were a lot of strict rules to follow. As much as I like having nice things, I don't want my own children to grow up in an environment where they're not allowed to have free access to art supplies, for fear that, in the course of normal play, they unwittingly commit a couple thousand dollars' worth of property damage.

If one is of the perspective that antiques must be carefully preserved at all costs, then owning them might be stressful, especially with young children around.

Personally I think that antiques (and antique furniture in particular) are meant to be lived with. Damage is part of their history, and can almost always be repaired and restored. Sometimes the repair won't be perfect, but that's part of the history for the next owner too. I kind of like that.

The nice thing about that hobby is nobody else collects them, so I can often pick one up for a dollar.

I grew up with antiques my parents inherited. They were resilient to rough and tumble play. The antiques would hurt you more than you'd hurt it. But with arts stuff, there were strict rules because spilled paint or glue with damage it in a permanent sort of way.

I actually think the very concept of antique is complicit in the problem here. Once upon a time, furniture was furniture, and, while nice old heirloom furniture was still nice old heirloom furniture, we didn't have things like Antiques Roadshow to tell us, "Gee, it's too bad you used that as an actual piece of furniture, because it could have been worth $20,000, but now this and that and the other thing all mean it's worth only about $3,000."

Stuff that is expensive to buy is also often expensive to transport. "Antiques" and the like may make sense in world in which people move very rarely and tend to occupy the same apartment for decades. They don't make any sense for people who live mobile lives and move frequently. As others have said, you want to own your stuff, not have your stuff own you.

Selling to millionaires is a sound market segmentation strategy because millionaires are more likely to have money for antiques than thousandaires. And even better is the B2B model of the restorer because TV and film productions have realistic budgets and bring repeat business of the type that has a vested interest in the sustainability of the restorer’s business.

Or to put it another way, the restorer’s business caters to people who see future value in a warehouse full of dusty antiques.

I have better uses for 4k than a chair that's probably way heavy and clunky

Let them enjoy their "$4k" in illiquid storage. It will go for $50 in a liquidation auction most likely