Some Background

My photo
National and Global, United States

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Investing in Andy Warhol...


WHEN IS MONEY A GOOD INVESTMENT? Back in 1962, artist Andy Warhol completed a hand-drawn silkscreen painting titled "200 One Dollar Bills." True to its title, the massive 7½-foot wide painting depicted 200 one dollar bills reproduced in tones of black on grey, according to Bloomberg. The owner of the work, Pauline Karpidas, a London-based collector, purchased the painting with her husband back in 1986 for $385,000. Last week, Ms. Karpidas sold the painting for - are you ready for this - an incredible $43.8 million! And we all thought the dollar was depreciating.

From $385,000 to $43.8 million in 23 years translates into an average annual return of nearly 23%. Not bad for a painting. By contrast, the S&P 500 index rose at a modest-by-comparison average annual rate of approximately 6.5% from mid-1986 to today, according to data from Yahoo! Finance.

As the stunning value of the Warhol painting shows, investment opportunities may show up in places you wouldn't normally think of.

"Money is neither my god nor my devil. It is a form of energy that tends to make us more of who we already are, whether it's greedy or loving." --Dan Millman

No comments:

Post a Comment

Some Thinkers

Powered By Blogger