>>As for the collection, the owner/artist wants it to remain intact,
>>so I guess the only option is a major corporate buyer.
>
>An owner/artist wants to sell his or her collection for
>$300.000,000.00 ??    I was skeptical with the first posting about a
>collection of that size.  Now I suspect this is either one big ego
>trip by an artist,  a typo of too many zeros, or a real wopper of a
>put-on.
>
>John Bing
=======

John,

Although I deal with big figures, I really do not like to discuss
monetary issues, so I did not respond right away. Besides, no
museum can afford to buy it, so I dropped the issue and went
into the museum fundrasing questions instead. It just seemed
more appropriate to offer help instead of selling in this case.

Since you brought up the issue of paintings again, I will reply.
You could be right. His asking price may be too high - or too low,
but I feel that an artist is entitled to put a value on his works and
try to get it while he is still alive. He will only get the market value.

Since you question the value of this collection, I assume you are a
specialist in the field. I certainly am not. However, if someone like
Van Gogh had a little more confidence in himself and his artistic
talents while still alive, he might have been able to get more money
for his paintings as well. Maybe his life would been less painful.

Picasso paintings may be better known than those I promote here,
but both consist of just a canvas and a frame with some paint on it.
I would estimate the physical value (paint & canvas) to be $500 max.
The rest is only a perceived value - depending on what buyers "feel"
it is worth. Therefore, such values are quite arbitrary in most cases.
Unfortunately for artists, their talents are only fully appreciated when
they are gone - and someone else is benefitting from their hard work.

Since you feel the artist is over-estimating his own value, let me say
this. The president of a major corporation is not worth more than the
lowest paid person working there. Nor is a $5 Million a year athlete
worth more than an absolute beginner. They have a high perceived
value as long as they generate a profit, but if they fail, their perceived
market value may be much closer to zero. Their value as humans,
fortunately, remains intact.

Professors get paid for their great knowledge, but shouldn't they be
paid at least as much as an athlete? I think many of them work a lot
harder than the athletes. Shouldn't a volunteer be getting the same
income if he/she has acquired the exact same knowledge through a
life of studying the same subjects alone instead of in a university?

If I sold one of my ideas to General Motors tomorrow for $10 Million,
would it increase my value as a human? Not at all. It would be just
an idea to most people, but to GM it could have a $500 Million market
value. Even if I sold it for just $1, the market value for GM would not
change. Only the creator of the idea lost out, just like an artist would.
Buyers will not buy unless there is a potential profit, or they have a
personal liking for it - in this case making the item priceless to them.

So, where is the real value?

Before we put "value stickers" on people, their ideas or their work,
we should maybe evaluate why we question such values. I might not
even want a $10 Million Rembrandt in my home due to personal taste.
It would not change the value. Yet, I might pay 10 times the perceived
value of another painting if I like it. For me it is worth 10 times more,
but its market value does not change at all.

So, why worry about the value of an item if we are unable to buy it?
Those who are wealthy have a choice. For most of us, it is not the case.

To me, a rich person is a person who can stop and enjoy what pleases
him most in life - even if it just means enjoying the sun. A good person
is someone who shares his spot in the sun with others. Some people
are happy just to be alive - others would still be unhappy with all the
riches in the world. So, I think most of us are quite lucky already.

Have a great day!

Kind regards,

Arne Tengelsen
Groupex Marketing International Inc
Montreal - Canada

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