Insurance Value: TBD
Boy, oh boy. As we were driving home, we were talking about how Celeste could stop working because this print was going to erase our debt and then some.
I noticed this print while leaving the second floor. I noticed it has an "R.R. Dec. 30th, 1979." Surely the Lord hadn't just delivered me an original Rauschenberg a few days after his death. I flipped it over and found instant provenance, a Miami Herald clipping with hand notes that this "picture" had appeared in the Miami Herald on Dec 30th, 1979. It is a Rauschenberg! It's the cover of a gay and lesbian magazine from south Florida called "Tropics."
Walking up to pay, a woman came up and looked closely at the clipping on the back. "Celeste!" I said sternly under my breath, "don't show the back; they'll figure out it's worth exponentially more than 35 dollars. " We made it out with the print and they gave us a free Bakelite fillet knife. I immediately called my art dealer (read: Pat) who noted it may be a print of a print. He wasn't thinking of newsprint, but it's kind of true.
Instant provenance?
I cut away the paper backing to reveal...a stinking Santa Claus ad. We were duped.
The house we got this at was a very nice on a very nice block. This was our competition. Look at those vultures, beaks pressed against the glass trying to scout their prey.
Ahhhhh...quit giving me the evil eye.
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