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A 350,000 percent increase?

According to a recent story in Bloomberg Businessweek, the value of “Apocalypse Now,” a painting (kind of) by Christopher Wool, sold for $26.4 million at a recent Christie’s auction.

And by painting (kind of), we mean the work is just all-capital black letters on a white background that are a line from the Francis Ford Coppola’s movie: SELL THE HOUSE SELL THE CAR SELL THE KIDS.

Bloomberg's take on Christopher Wool's painting.

Bloomberg’s take on Christopher Wool’s painting.

The value had been estimated at between $15 and $20 million, more than double what it had sold for the last time.

Besides this astronomical sale price, the story in Businessweek is interesting because of what it says about investing in art.

“Contemporary art sales at auction shot up 33 percent last year and 1,078 percent over the past decade, according to France-based Artprice.com. And those figures don’t include private sales and gallery transactions, which dwarf auction sales.”

It goes on to say:

“At these levels, art has become a significant slice of the net worth of some of the planet’s richest inhabitants, a portfolio-diversifying store of value for anyone who already has enough homes, bonds, stocks, or airplanes.”

Here at Twisted Fish Gallery, while we value our artists and their work, we’re not into stratospheric-type prices, so start investing in original art now — for the future.

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