Nate MinorNPR had the story this morning of Amazon.com getting into the fine art selling business:
… [San Francisco art gallery manager Danny] Sanchez was eager to partner with Amazon. “They redefined online shopping and I think they have the ability to do that for this new kind of marketplace for art,” he says.
The audience for visual art is there, says Peter Faricy, vice president of Amazon Marketplace which is overseeing the launch. Faricy says the company was getting customer requests to put art on Amazon.
“We know our customers love fine art and want ways to discover more of it and so this really gives them a way to discover artists far beyond their geography,” he says.
Among the items for sale: a Monet original (above) with a $1.5 million price tag.
Cue the Internet pranksters:
It’s a beautiful painting, and I’m glad I purchased it. The only problem I have is that I couldn’t figure out where to hang it. Every other day, I ring my bell and wait for my butler to come. “Jeeves, can you please move the Monet to the solarium?” “Jeeves, can you please move the Monet to the library? No, not that library. The one on the third floor.” It’s a small painting, so finding a space where it can be showcased is difficult.
Well, finally this morning, Jeeves and I figured it out. Would you believe the Monet fits just perfectly over the toilet? It really brings the bathroom together, with the blue stripes on the bowl matching the towels and the fluffy toilet seat cover. My husband says it’s a little creepy looking into the eyes of the rosy cheeked L’Enfant as he uses the toilet, but I’m sure he’ll get used to it.
I was seriously considering purchasing this item, but I can’t get beyond my suspicion that the artist doesn’t know how to draw hands. The clumsy attempt to hide them behind a misshapen bowl just screams AMATEUR.
I ordered this product back in June for $1.4 million, but in July I found a similar painting by Van Gogh on sale at Target for only $800k, so I returned this one and had to pay a $14.99 restocking fee, ridiculous!!!
