How Much Is Foolishness Worth on EBay?
May 10 2000
When an art collector offers $135,805 for an unseen painting that bears initials matching those of an abstract expressionist, it's a sign of something. Whether it's a sign of prosperity or stupidity is not clear. Sure, work by the late Richard Diebenkorn has fetched $3.9 million, according to AP, but isn't $135,805 an expensive maybe?
Media reports on the brush-stroke brouhaha were confused. Yes, the seller concocted a weepy story about a wife, a child and a garage-sale painting to boost the chances of a cushy sale, wrote the New York Times' Judith Dobrzynski - the reporter credited by other outlets with breaking the story. But the press seemed unclear whether the seller's white lies were the source of the notion that the painting was the work of abstract expressionist Richard Diebenkorn. The Times credited the Diebenkorn rumor to "speculation," while the AP let the seller off the hook, saying that Sacramento attorney Kenneth Walton only posted a photo of the painting and noted that the signature was "RD."
Then again, maybe it's all in your point of view. The New York Times went front-page with its scoop but topped it with the restrained headline, "Online Seller of Abstract Work Adds a Money-Back Guarantee." The San Jose Mercury News ran the Times account, but homed in on the eBay and fiction angles : "EBay Seller Embellished Story Behind $135,805 Painting."
Credit Dutch bidder Robert Keereweer for a sense of humor. The San Francisco Examiner reported that he had studied art history in college and was confident that the painting was an original. "It's a typical way of his painting; it's a typical subject; the colors were right," he told the Examiner. "We'll find out in a few days whether this is the laughable thing of the century." Place your bets now. - Deborah Asbrand
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