Overvalued

Raqib Shaw, "Absence of God I" (2007), at White Cube (London)

₤750,000 ($1,470,000)

Glitzy and over-the-top in terms of visual horsepower, Shaw’s acrylic, industrial paint, glitter, and semi-precious-crystal-infused canvas from 2007 sold almost instantly at White Cube for a remarkably posh ₤750,000 ($1,470,000).

Dominated in part by a high-wattage skull image placed smack in the middle of the roughly 72-by-50 inch canvas, the piece recalls Damien Hirst, but regrettably, Shaw’s overworked composition doesn’t quite reach that artist's heights.

Shaw works have certainly soared higher than this one in terms of price, though, notably “Garden of Earthly Delights III” from 2003, which sold at Sotheby’s London last October for a record ₤2,708,500 to Jeffrey Deitch. This later example doesn't boast that one's level of quality, but on the upside, the transaction proves the unrepentant demand for Shaw’s work.

An overvalued honorable mention goes to the $80 million Francis Bacon triptych at Marlborough Gallery, “Three Studies of the Human Body” (1970), which was still unsold as of this writing.

Photo by Andy Johnson, © the artist, courtesy Jay Jopling/White Cube (London)