The future looks bleak

[slowmo]

A small problem ahs occured, it could and may well get worse. Its to do with Damien Hirst setting the trend and others following.

Hirst has a show on at the serpentine, at the show he (they) is (are) selling a limited edition set of 50 prints by artists on show. Great Idea I thought, but couldn't get near the £15,000 they are asking for it.

Anyway, decided to ask eyestorm how much for 21st Century love by Micallef. Need a good size piece for my living room and thought it was good. Today they have changed the buying principle, I can only buy it as part of a set! What a shame you cannot buy individual pieces, I hope this is not a sign of things to come. Otherwise the future looks very bleak. Imagine having to buy a load of prints in a bundle to get the one you wanted.

[atkuefler]

I think the only reason they will sell that as a set is because they only have a few left and they are hoping to move the last of his works. With 21st Century being such a great print that would bring alot of demand I think they hope it will make someone just give in and buy the set! I think it is just a way for them to move the last of his prints! Just an idea though

[manchestermike]

Try them again soon mate, they've decided to break down a few of the sets already and "may" do further in the future (suppose it depends if they sell).
Current Pricing:

Dirty Deluxe and 21st Century Love - Available as part of a complete set £20,000

Giant Freak £1,400, Shibuya Crossing £1,400, Girl Tokyo £1,600 - Set of 3 for £4,000

Head £1,000, Self Portrait £1,000 - Set of 2 for £1,800

Happy Fucked up Nuclear Girl £2,300, My Walk in Harijuku £2,100, No One Understands Me £1,500 - Set of 3 for £5,500

My Walk in Harijuku £3,500

[slowmo]

I dont know if it was me that done it but last night it had enquire for details and today it says about being set only and to call Ben. However from the prices you just quoted I couldn't have afforded it anyway so no real loss I suppose.

[lesroy]

This is because they have a set of 10 prints all with the same number! I understand it's number 3 or summat and they dont want to break the set yet, its not a sign of things to come at all.

They have just broken the rest on the single numbers from sets into single prints and if that set of 10 doesnt sell they will do it again.

[atomcore]

In the past Eyestorm have increased the price of a print as it has sold. The fewer the prints the higher the price. I think there is new management etc and they didn't do this with Micallef. The price stayed the same right until the end (except the minus 10 numbers). The public as a whole benefitted from this. I hope they don't go back to their old ways.

[atkuefler]

You know I bought one of the prints in this series from eyestorm and right after I purchased mine their Exeter location bought up the remaining lot and upped the price. Plus the partner business britart.com had the same prints for sale as eyestorm with about 20% more.

[lesroy]

I was speaking to a guy in the queue at SG and he was lucky enough to buy all of the Micallef prints when they first came out. He offered £100 less per print for the whole set! So you can make a deal with them... admittedly this was when they couldn't shift a micallef for toffee!

Mine were £590 for the colourful ones and £440 for Girl Tokyo... a few months before the lazinc show.

[ABC]

Eyestorm didnt put the prices up that much, Opus did though. I was offered 21st century in Jul/Aug for 400 then for 600 in Sep. All others were from £280-£550, when Eyestorm sold out "opus" stuck them up to over 1k for a basic SP or Head print as they were selling on ebay for the same. I managed to get a few back in the days before the hype started about Micallef and before Laz had him, I love them for what they are and not for what they are worth like most seem to be doing at the moment with all prints by Banksy and Micallef IMO.
Lets face it, I turned down 21st century becuase I though 400-600 was a lot to pay for a print (It is). Eyestorm knew they had lost Micallef to Laz and could have made a lot more money but choose not to. The Suite of 10 prints from Eyestorm are a good investment if you could afford them, In 3 years time they will be a bargain, Look at Banksys Kate prints, £1300 at SG what are they worth now?? Thats for the investers!!

[mammal2]

ABC - You speak the truth!

[foundation]

mammal2 said:

ABC - You speak the truth!

But Mammal2, you speak with forked tongue



( only Jokin)

[ABC]

Just a note on the Serpentine folder. The prints in the Limited Print Portfolio is 23 in total, not 50. Like the Eyestorm prints they break down to a reasonable price if you like that sort of thing. IMO they are shit , even the Banksy looks rushed - the best by far is the Hirst Butterfly, thats about it for them. but if you were a serious collector of their work thats a nice collection of tat. I did get a chance to go and have a look, not that impressed with any of it, even the Banksy Napalm looked a bit tatty compared with most of his other works, he should stick to stencils. IMO.


www.serpentinegallery.org/2006/12/damien_hirst_curates_a_limited.html

[lesroy]

I agree with you abc...

With the exception of the Black & White "Napalm" from banksy... It's one of my favourite prints frm him... the black and white really works for me and the red droplets of blood make the piece just jump out at me!! Do you know what size it is?

I also love that butterfly from Hirst!

[romanywg]

Couldn't agree more. Was quite interested in the sound of a portfolio of modern artists but this is a piece of SH*T!

[slowmo]

Interesting to see that the show is not to everyone's taste, I liked it myself, thought it was interesting to see different takes on the theme of death. But thats art, cant please all the people.

[Run Pig Run]

anyone see the south bank show last night? I missed it.

[corblimeylimey]

It's available as a 9 min audio interview podcast itpc://download.itv.com/southbankshow/podcast.xml
Interesting, but it's a shame there's no video.

[Run Pig Run]

someone gonna youtube it?