A final rule was contributed by Sotheby’s auctioneer Tobias Meyer. Meyer was auctioning a 1972 Bruce Nauman neon work, Run from Fear/Fun from Rear, which referred to an erotic act. When the work was brought in, a voice from the back of the room complained, “Obscenity.” Meyer, not known for his use of humor on the rostrum, responded, “Obscenity sells.” Often it does not, but for a star artist like Jeff Koons or Bruce Nauman, it does. It did.

From The $12 Million Stuffed Shark by Don Thompson. © 2008 by the author and reprinted by permission of Palgrave Macmillan.

"The Color of Money" originally appeared in the August 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's August 2008 Table of Contents.