Priceless Paintings
What
are "priceless paintings"? Can priceless paintings actually be
bought?
Priceless paintings are simply very valuable paintings. While there are some
truly priceless paintings that cannot be bought, most
so-called priceless paintings can be bought if
enough money is offered to
the paintings
' owners.
Vincent van Gogh's 'priceless
'
Portrait of Dr.
Gachet, one of two originals from van Gogh's last days,
was bought in 1990 for $82.5 million.
Pablo Picasso's
Boy with a Pipe topped that in 2004 at $104
million, and the current record is the $140 million that
Hollywood's David Geffen took in 2006 for his 'price
less'
No 5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock.
A close second would have been the $139 million that Las Vegas mogul Steve Wynn was about to
receive for Picasso's
Le Reve (right) in 2006. Days before
delivery, however, the nearly blind Wynn put his elbow through the portrait of Picasso's young mistress
while showing it off to guests and punctured it. Although
repaired, the damage is visible under black light and the paint
ing is now worth under $100 million,
literally "price-less" by at least $40 million.
Truly price
less works of art hang in museums. Leonardo da Vinci's
Mona Lisa at the Louvre in
Paris, for example, is valued between $800 million and a cool $1 billion,
but isn't for sale.
What determines the value of paint
ings?
It depends on more than just the names of the artists, who have their good years and bad, strengths and weaknesses.
Their artwork most in line with the media, style
and size for which the artist is best known and from the artist's best years
are the best buys; such works of art
appreciate faster and retain their value better during market upturns and downturns, respectively.
The value of paint
ings also depend on their condition as Steve Wynn learned,
and
provenance, a French word that means "origin" or "pedigree".
Paint
ings that once graced the German Kaiser's palace and
later the home of Jackie Onassis, for example, are worth more than if those paint
ings had
passed through less illustrious patrons.
Should you buy a price
less paint
ing if or when you have the financial resources?
That depends on your perspectives about those resources.
Click here
if you believe it to be yours,
and here if you believe
that it's a blessing from God.