The $10 IKEA Piece: An Interesting Social Experiment on the Value of Art

When Peter Lik sold a print to a collector for $6.5 million last year, people balked at the news. Lik is known to be a savvy businessman who has raked in over $440 million by churning out and selling his “collectible” prints to deep-pocketed people who want to invest in his art, so why should his prints be worth so much?

The Internet media channel LifeHunters recently did a social experiment that explores how people perceive and value art. They placed a $10 IKEA print in the Museum of Modern Art in Arnhem, The Netherlands, and asked “art experts” what they thought about it.

A team member named Boris approached art aficionados and asked them about the illustration of a spider and a whale, which he claimed was created by an artist named “Ike Andrews.”

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“You don’t buy this in a cheap store,” one woman says. Another man says he would pay €2.5 million, or $2.7 million, if he were given the opportunity to buy it. Though, “If it’s more, I’d think it’s too pricey,” he says.

(via LifeHunters via TIME)

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