When you’re about to get caught with something you shouldn’t have, trying to get rid of that evidence is only natural. But while flushing that joint down the toilet before your mom catches you in the act makes sense, destroying millions of dollars worth of precious art seems like a pretty extreme reaction. [More]
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We Live In A World Where There’s A Wait List For A $3,000 Set Of Colored Pencils
By 10.17.16 — Updated: 11.1.16
Coloring: it’s not just for kids anymore. Adult coloring books have become trendy in the last year or so as an easy way for grownups to unwind and pretend they’re five again and don’t have to deal with things like jobs and bills. And what could be more enticing to a kid with a coloring book than a deluxe set of colored pencils? [More]
Supreme Court Lets Yale Keep $200M Van Gogh Stolen By Bolsheviks In 1918
By 3.28.16
Nearly 130 years after Vincent Van Gogh painted “The Night Café,” and nearly a century after Russia’s Bolshevik government took the painting as its own from the collection of a private citizen, the U.S. Supreme Court has decided to not chime in on the $200 million painting’s rightful owner, meaning it will remain in a Yale University gallery, where it’s been since 1961. [More]
The Glorious ’80s Time Capsule House Is Having An Estate Sale
By 8.6.15
You may remember our post about a month ago of a home on the market that captured an era so perfectly that it just stunned the Internet. We were in love with “the ’80s house,” as we called it around the office. Now anyone can own a piece of what makes the house so stunning, because tomorrow and Saturday, the owners are having an estate sale. [More]
Guy Probably Won’t Forget The Time He Left A $1.25M Piece Of Art On The Train
By 12.1.14
We’ve all had that no good, very bad commuting day, when nothing seems to go your way. But while normal woes include traffic jams, heinously crowded subway cars and missed buses, an art collector in Switzerland had the worst kind of transit trouble one might imagine — he got off a train and forgot to bring a $1.24 million piece of 13th century artwork with him. Oops. [More]
Woman Must Give Back Stolen Renoir She Scored On The Cheap At Flea Market
By 1.13.14
Finders doesn’t always mean keepers: A judge has ruled that woman who picked up a painting by Renoir for $7 at a flea market must give it back to the Baltimore Museum. It turns out that the piece was stolen in 1951, and as such, still belongs to the museum. Hey, at least she has a story about owning a great work of art for a little while, at least. [via The Wire] [More]
Artist Turns 4.7 Million Hacked LinkedIn Passwords Into 8-Volume Book
By 12.23.13
Remember back in 2012 when someone hacked LinkedIn and revealed that millions of user passwords had been stored in plain-old cleartext? German artist Aram Bartholl has compiled, printed and bound 4.7 million passwords into “Forgot Your Password?,” an eight-volume set that visitors to next month’s Unpainted media art fair in Munich will be able to thumb through. [via Boing Boing] [More]
It’s A Good Day When You Find $30M Worth Of Rare Art In The Attic
By 3.8.13
It’s always nice if you can afford to buy say, a nice little cottage on Long Island, a getaway to escape reality and just enjoy the peace and quiet. One man spent $300,000 to buy just such a bungalow out in Bellport, N.Y. and found his reward for doing so would be more than some R&R — it’d be about $30 million worth of art. [More]
Using Other People’s Images To Market Your Skill As An Artist Is Probably Not A Good Idea
By 2.11.13
A couple weeks back we suggested that a bit of Google Image research can help prevent consumers from investing in a Kickstarter project that isn’t legitimate. But one project creator thought it would be okay to use results of a Google Image search to promote her ability as an artist. [More]
Artists Adds $0 Tags To Her Clothes, Reshelves Them
By 11.7.11
Artist Jess Dobkin takes her clothes, attaches realistic-looking tags that say “free” on them, and puts them back on the shelves at the original stores she bought them from. She calls the project, “Restored,” and made a cheery video about it. [More]
Painting Of Chase Branch On Fire eBays For $25,200
By 9.14.11
Tapping into popular sentiment, Alex Schaefer’s painting of a Chase bank on fire just sold on eBay for $25,200. Part of what drove up the price was online buzz after police questioned him while he was painting it, asking him if he planned to do what the painting depicted. [More]
L.A. City Councilman Proposes Making Spray Paint Buyers Provide Addresses, IDs
By 9.9.11
Los Angeles is a city crawling with artists and graffiti vandals, and both sectors — as well as other folks who like to paint stuff for legitimate reasons — are big on buying spray paint. In order to keep closer tabs on the graffiti types, the L.A. City Council is proposing a law that would require anyone who buys spray paint to submit their address and identification so police can keep the information on file. [More]
Brian Ulrich's Fluorescent Consumer Hellscapes
By 8.17.11
I’m a sucker for artistically rendered photographs of consumer behavior, which is why I was so excited to hear that Brian Ulrich has a new series up called Retail. Hi-gloss shops populated by dystopic consumers drenched in fluorescence, framed by an expert hand? Count me in, especially if there’s a BOGO! [More]
Artist Gets $100,000, Uses It To Paste 100,000 $1s On The Wall
By 6.6.11
What would you do if you were awarded $100,000? Quit your job? Pay off the mortgage? Produce that disco-rollerskate version of Tristan and Isolde you’ve always been talking about? If you’re German artist Hans-Peter Feldmann, you use it to put up 100,000 $1 bills on the walls of the Guggenheim. [More]
Artist Sculpts Skull Out Of McDonald's French Fries
By 3.30.11
Did you think that no good could ever come from the McDonald’s dollar menu? Not so. Check out the art of Christopher Chiappa, who made arc and skull sculptures from burgers and fries, photographed himself with them, and calls the diptych “McMiracles.” It’s certainly healthier than eating them. [More]
Indulge Your Artistic Passions While Keeping The Bills Paid
By 2.14.11
Inspired by a Francis Ford Coppola) interview, Trent at The Simple Dollar started thinking about what it takes to live as an artist today. Unless you’re blessed enough to be able to indulge your passion on a national stage and pay your bills, you probably have to work a day job in order to make ends meet. [More]
Gold Pills Makes You Poop Gold
By 12.14.10
Now you can make your own Golden Poo trophies at home with the line of Gold Pills by Citizen:Citizen. For just $425, these 24k gold leaf filled capsules will “turn your innermost parts into chambers of wealth.” [More]
See All 37 Twinkie Ingredients Beautifully Photographed
By 8.18.10
Photographer Dwight Eschliman has posted lovely photographs of all 37 of the ingredients inside a Twinkie. Each sits on a plate and is shot from above and boast rich tones and textures, reveling in an unexpected complexity that contrasts how we normally think about the icon junk food. This one is FD&C Yellow #5. [More]
