Major artists have a tendency to begin their careers as minor artists, selling their works to unsophisticated buyers that hang them on walls because they like how they look.
A few years ago, there was a story out of Chicago: like many cities, it has a program where they have a small annual budget to purchase art from local (minor) artists and display it in municipal buildings. There was a painting they had purchased and hung up in the convention center. Over the course of approximately 3 decades, tens of millions of people walked past it until one of them said “hey, that guy is really famous now” and the convention center decided that maybe they shouldn’t let it sit there where anyone could grab it and run out the door. They put it up for auction and got more than $20 million for it.
Seriously? If some scoundrel took every piece of art in my house I'd be dismayed, of course, but I'd hardly be out a significant amount of money. How many of the folks on here have seriously valuable art on their walls? Good for you if you do, and maybe then this advice is helpful. It's less useful to me. I like smoking dogs playing cards. That's just me.
Much easier not to put valuable art on your walls. Why?
There is so much art in the world, I've heaps.
Support minor artists.
Major artists have a tendency to begin their careers as minor artists, selling their works to unsophisticated buyers that hang them on walls because they like how they look.
A few years ago, there was a story out of Chicago: like many cities, it has a program where they have a small annual budget to purchase art from local (minor) artists and display it in municipal buildings. There was a painting they had purchased and hung up in the convention center. Over the course of approximately 3 decades, tens of millions of people walked past it until one of them said “hey, that guy is really famous now” and the convention center decided that maybe they shouldn’t let it sit there where anyone could grab it and run out the door. They put it up for auction and got more than $20 million for it.
Yes, what a good problem to have.
In the unlikely event of that happening, sell it
Seriously? If some scoundrel took every piece of art in my house I'd be dismayed, of course, but I'd hardly be out a significant amount of money. How many of the folks on here have seriously valuable art on their walls? Good for you if you do, and maybe then this advice is helpful. It's less useful to me. I like smoking dogs playing cards. That's just me.