I'm thinking about buying something very expensive. Maybe an antelope.

[hellziggy]

I called to get the price for this limited edition photo today, to get an idea of what the one my dad has might sell for (his is not part of a numbered/limited series and the signature has not been authenticated yet). I just about had heart failure when the dude quoted the price: $23,000! That's more than our car cost!
Unfortunately it also means that I most likely will not be able to buy it off Aunt Betty's estate for $100 or so. *pout*

Comments

[alisgray.livejournal.com]

Sympathies.

Art is such a gamble as an investment, too. I can't in good conscience recommend that you just buy it for what it's worth...

When my grandmother died, I was the only one of my siblings who was free enough from school to go help take care of her house for appraisals, etc. There was one particular piece of art that I very much wanted; it was apparently a 16th or 17th century book illustration called "Receiving the Queen." The art appraiser listed it as being worth about $15,000 -- completely out of the range of stuff I could reasonably ask for. I couldn't even get a good photo of it. It went off to auction at Christie's.

Here's the catch. At Christie's it was re-appraised, and determined to be a forgery (which, if you'd seen the shoddy, acidic quality of the framing, would have been a relief to your mind too.) HOWEVER, because it was a rather well-known and respected 18th century Spanish forger, it was still worth about $1,500. Nonetheless, I might have been able to cop it as a serious portion of my heritage. Now it's just a good story. I wonder who bought it.

Art is weird.

[hellziggy.livejournal.com]

That sucks that you couldn't get it.
Yeah, I'm definitly not going to be able to get it now, cuz I wasn't looking at it as an investment, rather as just something really cool to have.