Collectors rarely shoot holes in expensive art, but Dennis Hopper, the actor and art collector, thought his Andy Warhol screenprint of Mao Zedong looked dangerous one dark night. He shot two bullet holes in the picture. Warhol thought it amusing and signed one “warning shot” and the other “bullet hole.” The picture, estimated at $20,000 to $30,000, sold for $302,500 at a Christie’s auction on January 12, 2011. It is a one-of-a-kind because of the artist-signed bullet holes, so the “damage” didn’t lower the value.
Photo: CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2010
Roseville pottery collectors now classify damage to pieces. Glaze chips that don’t damage the clay body and are very small are of minimal concern. Chips through the glaze into the clay body and hairline cracks are more serious because they require some restoration. For the past few years, buyers of Roseville and other art pottery have been willing to pay good prices for great pieces that are slightly damaged.
Record Price for Lalique Vase
An amber Lalique glass vase shaped to look as if a serpent were wrapped around it set a record price of $56,673 at a December auction by Heritage Auctions in New York. The vase, made in 1924, is 10 1/4 inches high.
Photo: Heritage Auctions
Restored Antique at Boston Museum
Should museums restore antiques? The new rooms at the Boston Museum present a novel solution. The base of a cupboard with drawers made in Massachusetts about 1690-1700 is displayed as a carved wooden chest, no color added. A new top for the cupboard was made in 2009 and painted the way the base would have been when new. Faded paint and textile dyes have given a distorted idea of the decorating of the 17th and 18th centuries. Scientific studies have proven our well-to-do ancestors had very cheerful decorations on the walls and furniture that went with their colorful ceramics.
Royal Pearls
Costume jewelry can masquerade as real if you’re the Duchess of Windsor. She often wore two strands of large pearls together. One strand was cultured, and the other was a natural pearl and diamond necklace by Cartier that had once belonged to Queen Mary. We don’t know where the cultured pearls are, but the real ones sold for $733,333 to Calvin Klein at a 1987 auction. They sold again in 2007 for $3,625,000.
i have a globe jar, amber,with lid, date on jar is 1886. It has some flakes on jar rim and a 1/2″ chip on jar rim. lid in excellent condition. Does the chip cut the price much or at all? Thank you
How could you slip up and call real pearls “costume”? The other comments sent in covered the source of pearls and I agree totally. You really blew it this time!
Don’t you think it’s likely that the value went up partly because of Hopper shooting it? I would be delighted to hang something on my wall that he popped a few shots into, even if Warhol didn’t find it amusing. What a conversation piece.
FWIW, cultured pearls are not costume jewelry. They are real pearls which come from real oysters, they’ve just been given a leg up.
Unless you meant to say faux pearls, or dipped pearls, or simulated pearls; those are costume jewelry.
Cultured pearls are “real” pearls, but are grown and are not naturally formed.
Pearls that are not “real” are synthetic and made of a variety of materials such as glass and painted plastic.
I seriously doubt that Mikimoto Pearls would consider their cultured pearls anything but “real”.