Apparently The Doc is in the wrong profession, it appears fine art skills are much more lucrative than financial reporting/analysis....provided one has the awareness to depict the right object.....
Live Ebay Auction ...... current bid is $5,027 with 5 + days remaining on the auction...
I think this painting is really touching a nerve so I'm putting it up for auction. It's getting a lot of publicity which I'm very excited about! It started out as a simple urban landscape painting for a series of artworks depicting banks on fire. But then after a few hours the police arrived and took my information inquiring as to whether I was a terrorist. Click here to read my blog post about that: http://alexanderschaefer.blogspot.com/2011/07/chase-bank-painting-en-plein-air-and.html .
I got a bit of publicity about the whole affair, but then three weeks later two officers showed up at my home for further questioning and you can read about that here: http://alexanderschaefer.blogspot.com/2011/08/chilling-effect-on-speech.html
At that point things have snowballed. The LA Times called for an interview and then ran an article about the entire story of this painting so far. Click here to read the article: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bank-painting-20110828,0,4395501.story
It's also been linked to the Keiser Report who have planned an interview with me next week: http://maxkeiser.com/2011/08/28/alex-schaefers-depiction-of-a-chase-branch-going-up-in-flames-drew-the-attention-of-l-a-police/
It's amazing the speed news spreads and I'm very glad to be moving people with my artwork and for the support for this issues the painting is bringing up! I plan to paint more!
Here's how I'm pricing the piece: In 1873 one French franc equalled .290322581 g grams of gold. Legend has it that Vincent Van Gogh sold one painting in his lifetime, the Red Vineyard at Arles, for 400 francs, which would have equalled 116.129 grams of gold, or 4.1 ounces of gold. Today an ounce of gold costs $1835, so 4.1 ounces of gold is $7523.50. Not a bad price adjusted for inflation and given the amount of money his work auctions for nowadays quite a steal! I'm going to auction this painting on e-bay, it's just "too hot" not to! I've been getting offers and I think this is the most democratic and frankly interesting way to monetize this artwork. I'm going to float this painting on the open market and engage in a little real-world price discovery. And I'm going to be setting the auction starting bid at the cost of just a half an ounce of gold in today's prices, or $920.
