What Is This Painting Worth?

[It Aint Necessarily So]

This was recently found in a couple's home after they died.
Turns out it was stolen.

You reminded me of a scene form Woody Allen's "Play It Again, Sam," which involved a Jackson Pollack painting instead of a de Kooning, but the joke works with either. Max, Woody Allen's character, who is newly single, is at an art museum with his best friend's wife to meet and maybe pick up some women. They see a young Goth chick standing by herself gazing up at a huge abstract painting. Max decides to approach her with this ice breaker. What I love is the contrast between her ponderous existence and his obvious superficiality:

MAX : That's quite a lovely Jackson Pollock.

GOTH CHICK : Yes, it is.

MAX : What does it say to you?

GOTH CHICK : It restates the negativeness of the universe. The hideous, lonely emptiness of existence. Nothingness. The predicament of man forced to live in a barren, godless eternity like a tiny flame, flickering in an immense void, with nothing but waste, horror and degradation forming a useless straight-jacket in a black, absurd cosmos.

MAX : What are you doing Saturday night?

GOTH CHICK : Committing suicide.

MAX : What about Friday night? (she looks at him and walks away)​

You can watch it here:

 

[Brickjectivity]

Such paintings are valuable simply because a rarefied class
of intelligentsia & wealthy elites value what others of their ilk
value in the lofty world of artists vaunted for their place in the
evolving world of arcane art. It's not about beauty, meaning,
or skill....it's the collection...the ownership of something coveted
by others willing pay a fortune for it.
But let's not ignore the fact that some valuable art is wonderful,
& can even be appreciated by rustic janitors & groundskeepers.

I heard it was a tax loop and that the pictures 'Valued' at millions of dollars are not actually so valuable. The painting auction business was, until recently, not closely scrutinized by the gov. and was convenient for transferring funds without suspicion in certain situations where suspicion was best avoided.

How To Avoid Taxes on Income From Selling Expensive Art?
The Art of Money Laundering – IMF F&D

 

[Twilight Hue]

This was recently found in a couple's home after they died.
Turns out it was stolen.

Looks like a serial killer made it depicting flayed human skin.

It's pretty creepy.

 

[savagewind]

It's a naked woman. To me, one hundred dollars.

 

[Revoltingest]

You reminded me of a scene form Woody Allen's "Play It Again, Sam," which involved a Jackson Pollack painting instead of a de Kooning, but the joke works with either. Max, Woody Allen's character, who is newly single, is at an art museum with his best friend's wife to meet and maybe pick up some women. They see a young Goth chick standing by herself gazing up at a huge abstract painting. Max decides to approach her with this ice breaker. What I love is the contrast between her ponderous existence and his obvious superficiality:

MAX : That's quite a lovely Jackson Pollock.

GOTH CHICK : Yes, it is.

MAX : What does it say to you?

GOTH CHICK : It restates the negativeness of the universe. The hideous, lonely emptiness of existence. Nothingness. The predicament of man forced to live in a barren, godless eternity like a tiny flame, flickering in an immense void, with nothing but waste, horror and degradation forming a useless straight-jacket in a black, absurd cosmos.

MAX : What are you doing Saturday night?

GOTH CHICK : Committing suicide.

MAX : What about Friday night? (she looks at him and walks away)​

You can watch it here:

Gawd, I like those earlier Woody Allen movies.
(He even mocked this view in one of his later movies.)

BTW, you left out "bleak" after "useless".

 

[Revoltingest]

I heard it was a tax loop and that the pictures 'Valued' at millions of dollars are not actually so valuable. The painting auction business was, until recently, not closely scrutinized by the gov. and was convenient for transferring funds without suspicion in certain situations where suspicion was best avoided.

How To Avoid Taxes on Income From Selling Expensive Art?
The Art of Money Laundering – IMF F&D

I'd recently heard that too.

 

[savagewind]

A naked woman and the bottom part is a confused picture of the male who is having sex with her. It is a picture of the turbulence of sex. Isn't it?

 

[Revoltingest]

Looks like a serial killer made it depicting flayed human skin.

It's pretty creepy.

Creepy that such schlock is worth $150,000,000.
But as another said, it might just be for the purposes
of money laundering.

 

[Father Heathen]

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

The thieves are dead (old age).
So it's highly unlike they'll even be prosecuted.

That's what God is for, isn't it?

 

[Revoltingest]

I once went on a stay-married trip to an art museum in NYC.
There was an exhibit of (as I recall) Dan Flavin. One work
was described as "brilliant" in its innovation. It was a single
tube 48" fluorescent strip light mounted on the wall. What
made it so novel & art-worthy? It was mounted at a 45 degree
angle. Such is the world of modern art.

Is anyone impressed with this?

 

[Revoltingest]

That's what God is for, isn't it?

God, from what I see, has a perverse sense of morality.
They might even be rewarded in paradise.

 

[savagewind]

The manipulation of the value of money is one more reason that I think that I am ready and willing to leave the Earth scene.

 

[Revoltingest]

The manipulation of the value of money is one more reason that I think that I am ready and willing to leave the Earth scene.

If you have any dirty money you don't want,
I'm willing to bear the burden of spending it.

 

[savagewind]

I once went on a stay-married trip to an art museum in NYC.
There was an exhibit of (as I recall) Dan Flavin. One work
was described as "brilliant" in its innovation. It was a single
tube 48" fluorescent strip light mounted on the wall. What
made it so novel & art-worthy? It was mounted at a 45 degree
angle. Such is the world of modern art.

Is anyone impressed with this?

I like it. Is it not a lighted penis?

 

[savagewind]

If you have any dirty money you don't want,
I'm willing to bear the burden of spending it.

Very interesting! I don't.

 

[Revoltingest]

I like it. Is it not a lighted penis?

It's just a fluorescent light....but mounted at a 45 degree angle.

 

[savagewind]

It's just a fluorescent light....but mounted at a 45 degree angle.

I was recently reminded of the fact that two can be right in an argument (she wasn't!). It is a light. But, it can certainly also picture an erection.

 

[Revoltingest]

I was recently reminded of the fact that two can be right in an argument (she wasn't!). It is a light. But, it can certainly also picture an erection.

People see what the want to see, eh.
That's why an ordinary fluorescent light mounted horizontally
is only worth $15. But at a 45 degree angle, it's modern art
worth $1,000,000.

 

[savagewind]

People see what the want to see, eh.
That's why an ordinary fluorescent light mounted horizontally
is only worth $15. But at a 45 degree angle, it's modern art
worth $1,000,000.

That worth is false. Have you (I haven't!) looked into when art went crazy priced wise? I can't imagine what is going on with it. You can imagine that it is money laundering. OK. But can that explain it all?