How do you measure an artwork's success? By its price on the auction block? Its placement in the museum? By how much it moves people, or makes them think? By how many college kids hang it on their dorm-room walls?
According to Overstockart.com, a company headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, that sells hand-painted reproductions of masterpieces for 3-figure prices, rather than the 6- or even 10-figure prices they might command at auction, the most popular work of the decade is Van Gogh's Starry Night, and Impressionist and modern works by European painters are the most coveted. The top 10 are:
1. Starry Night – Vincent van Gogh
2. Café Terrace at Night – Vincent van Gogh
3. The Kiss – Gustav Klimt
4. Poppy Field at Argenteuil – Claude Monet
5. The Mona Lisa – Da Vinci
6. Le Rêve – Pablo Picasso
7. Luncheon of the Boating Party – Pierre August Renoir
8. The Scream – Edvard Munch
9. Red Cannas – Georgia O’Keeffe
10. Persistence of Memory – Salvador Dali
According to a statement, Overstockart.com has sold over a million oil paintings in the past decade, but has not necessarily noticed a change in what sort of things people buy. “Our numbers indicate that as the years turn and our world evolves some things remain consistent,” said CEO David Sasson. “People are still captivated by the elegance and beauty that the classic artists bring to their home. It will be interesting to see when, if ever, this trend begins to fade.”
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