One way to increase the value of your art would be to have it become part of an oddly popular/famous art theft. That’s the case with Mark Lugo who walked out of a San Francisco gallery with a Picasso drawing under his arm. Turns out he’s done it a few times before on the East Coast too. In the end, the gallery has benefitted so much from the hoopla that they’re keeping the work on view:
Originally purchased by the gallery for $122,500 and offered for sale at $275,000, the sketch has already garnered bids of $375,000 in the wake of Lugo’s heist. But gallery owner Rowland Weinstein told the Examiner, the sketch is no longer for sale now that it has made national headlines. It seems the previously stolen goods are doing wonders for the gallery’s foot traffic. “It’s hard to say what it’s worth,” Weinstein explained, “Every single solitary day, at least 10 people come into the gallery asking where the Picasso is… It’s become such an important part, not just of our story, but I think the story of artwork in San Francisco.”
Stolen Picasso Turns Tourist Attraction as Thief Turns Inmate (SFChronicle)
