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Business and Modern Art

People tell a story about a well-known painter who was eating at an expensive French restaurant. When the meal was over. He discovered that he didn’t have any money. So he signed his napkin and handed it to the waiter. Was the owner of the restaurant disappointed? Not at all. He could sell. “Napkin” as a work of art for many times the cost of the dinner.

Today, anything with a famous artist’s name on it is valuable. The reason is that so many people buy art as an investment. In order to resell it at a higher price. And the easiest way to determine a work’s value is the reputation of the artist. This also true of some other businesses. Like movies or books. Where the reputation of the author or director is very important. But with a book or a movie. The opinions of millions of people determine success or failure. In the art world. It is the opinion of a small number of critics, art dealers or museum directors.

As a result, the price of an artistic work can go up quickly. For example, in 1959 a couple bought a painting by Jasper Johns for $900. By 1980, critical opinion had decided that Johns was a major artist – and the couple sold their painting for one million dollars. With this kind of profit. It is easy to see why big companies as well as rich people spend a lot of money investing in art. It is also easy to see that it is the investors, and not the artists themselves. Who make the biggest profits, Still, artists can get a lot of money for some strange things. In 1974 Carl Andre sold 120 bricks – with instructions to arrange them in a rectangle – to a British museum.

The museum won’t say that it paid for the bricks, but the amount was probably close to $10.000 or $83 for each brick.

Other artists find more original ways of capitalizing on their fame. The American pop artist Andy Warhol once put an ad in a newspaper. With his phone number, saying he would endorse anything for money. “Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art” Warhol said. But the real point is that. Like the restaurant owner all many people really want is an artist’s signature.