Costco now sells Picasso drawings. Seriously.
ABOVE: Images of Pablo Picasso’s Atelier De Cannes (1958), which is currently for sale at Costco.com for $129,999.99
Pseudorandom bulk retailer Costco has, according to the Wall Street Journal, sold original art works in the past. It started out innocently enough, with some isolated one-time-only sales of fine art prints, with a price ceiling of about $500. Like some perverse gateway drug, this led to sporadic sales of original art by mid-range artists, arranged with a Florida art dealer who acted as broker. Now, apparently, all of Costco’s common sense has gone straight up its nose and it is selling Picasso drawings. On its website. For $130,000. No, wait—it’s $129,999.99. Doesn’t that penny off really make the whole thing seem so much more affordable?
The WSJ, bean-counter that it is, says there’s a good financial reason for dealers to sell through a big-box store that is better known for selling pallet-loads of off-brand frozen fishsticks and discontinued plasma televisions: they don’t expect a big slice of the action. Costco, according to Jim Tutweiler, takes about a 14 per cent markup on sales, compared to legit galleries that can skim as much as half the final selling price. Ateliers De Cannes has been verified and got all its vaccinations from Maya Picasso, the painter’s daughter. “She is the world’s utmost authority,” proclaims Costco.com. Wonder if the Costco Executive Membership 2% kickback applies? That’s about $2,600—an awful lot of fishsticks.