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View Full Version : How valuable is a print - even a Picasso?

BarnOwl
07-21-2008, 07:28 AM
In today's New York Times...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/arts/design/21arts-STOLENPICASS_BRF.html?_r=1&ref=arts&oref=slogin

...we learn of the recovery of a Picasso print, stolen from a museum in
Brazil.

Entitled, "The Painter and the Model," what might be the $ value of this print?

There's a tiny repro of it in the printed version of the NYT, but not in the link, above, so I Googled for an image, but to no avail.
Dangerosa
07-21-2008, 01:51 PM
Probably tens of thousands of dollars, according to Sotheby's completed auction database. Not likely over six figures.

ETA: I take that back. Some Picasso prints have sold for millions. (www.sotheby's.com - completed auctions. Search print, Picassco. Sort high to low.
BarnOwl
07-21-2008, 02:24 PM
Probably tens of thousands of dollars, according to Sotheby's completed auction database. Not likely over six figures.

ETA: I take that back. Some Picasso prints have sold for millions. (www.sotheby's.com - completed auctions. Search print, Picassco. Sort high to low.

Surreal!! :D

Thank you, Dangerosa. I'll Google as you suggested.
Dangerosa
07-21-2008, 03:10 PM
Well, remember when you are talking about a print, you could be talking about a lot of things - but selling for a lot you are probably talking about a very small run hand created print created from an engraving - printed and numbered by the artist with the engraving it was printed from then destroyed (or lost) and sometimes with the other prints also lost. You probably aren't talking about a screenprint with a run in the thousands or the print you get from the museum gift shop.
Huerta88
07-21-2008, 03:18 PM
Sometimes not as valuable as it is held out to be:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/16/arts/design/16crui.html?em&ex=1216785600&en=9f22dd6a67972736&ei=5070
Spiny Norman
07-21-2008, 03:30 PM
Engraving or lithograph - the last was very popular with painters, because they prepare the image by using brushes and pencils, very much like you would a painting or drawing. Except they "paint" on a highly polished stone. Through a process of dark alchemy, the stone is made to absorb ink where the artist painted and prints are made by pressing paper on to the stone.

However, a stone is good for perhaps 200 prints of sufficient quality. After the print run, it is wiped down and polished up for the next motive.

All of which means that artist lithographies are always limited in number.