Mystery Art: The Answer Key

I asked you guys to identify 4 pieces of real art from world renowned professionals. Those pieces were scattered among 4 other pieces that my kid painted. Let's see how you guys did...

That was fun. First of all, thank you to all of you who participated. In total, we had 8 responses; 6 online and 2 offline. 5 guessers got 2 wrong. 3 guessers got 1 wrong. Nobody got them all right.

Ready to see the answers? Here are the four paintings that sold for millions of dollars:

#1

Just 38% of guessers got this one right. It’s an oil painting that was done by Jean Michel Basquiat - one of the more famous contemporary artists. Basquiat pieces pumped out just under $300 million in secondary sales last year alone! If you know Basquiat’s work, you can probably see some of the similarities in this one to some of the other things that he did. And yes, a lot of them look like this. The painting sold at auction through Christie’s for $1.2 million last year.

#2

75% of guessers got this one right. Another untitled contemporary piece; this one by Jasper Johns from the mid-1960’s. Johns’ work grabbed $11.5 million in secondary sales last year and this specific piece was last sold at auction in 2007. Winning bid? A little under $4.9 million. This one was also sold through Christie’s.

7

Like the Basquiat, this one proved to be a tricky one. Just 38% of guessers correctly identified #7 as a professional piece. Feast your eyes on “Untitled V” by Willem de Koonig. Not only was this painting made in 1975 by a world-renowned artist, but this one actually commanded the highest auction price of any of the four I selected. This ‘beaut’ brought home $24.8 million at a 2013 Sotheby’s auction. That came in slightly under estimate range which was $25-35 million; a real shame. Willem de Koonig had a total of $44.6 million in 2021 secondary sales.

8

The last of our 4 actual pieces of artwork is called “Gypsy” by Helen Frankenthaler. Turns out this one was the easiest - which I did not expect. Every single guesser got this one correct. This 1973 piece brought in a little under $1.8 million at Christie’s auction in 2019. Frankenthaler had $14.3 million in sales in 2021.

The Bidding Starts Now

The child art that fooled the most of you was far and away #5 - 75% of you guessed that one was done by a real world-renowned artist.

Shall we start the bidding at $100,000?

Jokes.

Value is Subjective

This was a fun game and it was certainly intended to be exactly that, but what does this tell us about value? Art is an easy target in this lesson because taste is so subjective. Every single one of you who guessed seemed to know that #8 was a real piece - but how many of you want to hang it on your wall? How many of you think the selected pieces that are real look sort of ridiculous? I know I do and I actually like contemporary art to a certain degree.

What gives that Basquiat painting value beyond that fact that he did it? Could a similar image not very easily be replicated by some of the people reading this blog? I’d wager fairly close reproductions of that piece could be performed in half an hour. But it’s Basquiat that gives value to the original. When we’re talking seven figures for a painting, it’s fair to say we’ve officially reached investment grade. So much about investing is a narrative especially in the last 20 to 40 years.

The reason why guys like Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger hate Bitcoin so much is because it doesn’t fit in their framework for asset valuation. Art doesn’t either by the way. Either art investors are wrong about art or Buffett is. Who knows? I suppose it depends entirely on how one derives value from living.

Thank you again to those of you who played. Sorry there were no winners this time. Perhaps we can do something like this again soon.