Did you know this painting recently sold for $106.5 million, making it the most expensive work of art ever sold? The public's only been able to see the thing once since 1951. How much do you think someone would have to pay to see THE MOST VALUABLE WORK OF ART IN THE WORLD?
How bout free.99?
Here's the deal: The buyers of fancy pants things need to see them up close and personal before they wave their paddles around, sooooo auction houses have free previews before the big event-- AND they're open to the public. You probably won't be able to see Nu au Plateau de Sculpteur anytime soon, but you'll be able to see plenty of other priceless works of art (actually they are price-full). In addition to art, auction houses sell antiques, jewelry, watches and other things rich folks want to buy. Probably the 2 most famous NYC auction houses are Christie's and Sotheby's but knowing New York there are probably plenty more.
As we are prone to doing here at Big Apple Small Wallet we used ourselves as guinea pigs and went to check out the collection of Michael Crichton, who, in addition to teaching us all how to create dinosaurs using old mosquitoes, hung out with some pretty happenin dudes. We dressed in our finest tshirts and perused works from Jasper Johns, Lichtenstein, Murakami, Warhol, etc etc etc. It was basically like seeing a once in a lifetime exhibit for free!
Auction houses do add one interesting element to a traditional trip to the art museum: Anticipated selling prices. You'll be shocked to find that even though you can paint like Rothko, you aren't likely to pull down 8 figures as listed next to his painting. But wander around! Act like you might be waving your paddle around for some oil on canvas! Here's what's coming up soon:
Sotheby's
Christie's
Ooooooo a wine auction, now that's fancy pants.
No comments:
Post a Comment