Every Sunday night in Britain, millions tune into Fake or Fortune to see journalist Fiona Bruce and international art dealer Philip Mould uncover whether a painting is priceless or worthless. The show is a hit because it dramatises the central question every collector quietly asks:
“Will this piece of art hold its value, or even rise?”
The answers are never simple.
Some artworks climb to astonishing heights. Others flatten or even fall.
Value in art is a story told over decades, shaped by taste, culture, dealers, and sometimes sheer luck.
History’s Great Climbers
Vincent van Gogh died poor, barely selling a painting in his lifetime.
A century later his works fetch hundreds of millions.
Claude Monet’s “unfinished daubs,” once laughed at, now dominate the walls of museums and set records at auction.
These stories show how long art can take to reveal its financial value.
But markets also forget.
Lawrence Alma-Tadema was a Victorian superstar. Collectors paid fortunes for his classical scenes. Within a generation, his prices collapsed as tastes shifted. The same happened to many who burned bright in one era only to fade in the next.
Modern Surges
In recent decades the pace has quickened.
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s graffiti-fused canvases, painted in the 1980s, now sell for more than $100 million. Banksy went from outlaw street artist to auction-room provocateur, shredding his own work mid-sale and doubling its price in the process.
And then there are the nimble collectors who spotted opportunities before the market caught fire.
Yesterday, a personal friend of mine, an art investor in London told me:
- Banksy: In 2000, he found a set of three prints on Banksy’s website for £3,000. He offered £2,400. The deal was accepted. Today those prints are worth over £400,000
By Dominic Robinson from Bristol, UK - Banksy Girl and Heart Balloon
- KAWS: In 2001, he paid £1,000 for a work by the New York street artist. That piece now carries a value close to £150,000
The sculpture "Companion (Passing Through)," by the artist KAWS (Brian Donnelly) at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas
- Yoshitomo Nara: Around the same time, he spent $2,500 on a drawing by the Japanese artist. Two decades later, it’s worth around $50,000
Graffiti created by Yoshitomo Nara at Niagara Bar, 112 Ave. A, New York, NY, USA
These aren’t abstract stories about distant collectors. They’re concrete examples of how quick judgement, confidence, and a little risk can yield extraordinary returns in the art world.
The Happy Discoveries
Even beyond the top end, the art market delivers surprises.
Recently, a Welsh farmer from the isle of Anglesey bought a scruffy-looking 15” canvas on Ebay. It purported to be a Benjamin West “The Last Supper”. He paid £50.
Benjamin West was an American artist who moved to Britain and became the favourite of King George III (yes, that King George). Our Anglesey farmer's picture once cleaned up and restored turned out to be full of brilliant dramatic colours, one of a series of preliminary sketches for the Chapel Royal at Windsor Castle (the reigning monarch’s equivalent of Camp David).
Once proven as a work by West, the picture was revalued at £50,000! Happy days for him!
In a similar way, a family in Arizona once bought a small sketch at a garage sale for $2. It turned out to be a work by Albrecht Dürer, with an estimated value around $50 million! In France, a forgotten Caravaggio sat in a dusty attic until rediscovered, potentially worth over €100 million.
"Apostle's hands" by Albrecht Dürer
Caravaggio: The Lute Player
Not every story ends in riches, but enough do to keep collectors wide-eyed and hopeful.
Why Some Art Stalls
Of course, most artworks never make this kind of leap. Value can stall when an artist doesn’t sustain momentum, when their work falls out of sync with fashion, or when supply overwhelms demand. That doesn’t lessen the emotional power of owning art.
Beauty and meaning aren’t listed on auction catalogues. They live in your home, not in the market.
The Balance
The art world has always been a dance between passion and price. Sometimes the music lifts unknowns into icons. Sometimes it forgets yesterday’s stars, until the day they’re rediscovered.
What remains constant is the human drive to collect and to hold imagination in our hands. And every so often, that imagination pays dividends far beyond what anyone could have predicted.
Footnote: Every one of Linda’s brilliant glass works has an etched signature, and comes with an illustrated book demonstrating provenance beyond a shadow of a doubt, essential in today’s world of fakes and knock-offs.
Hard Edge glass art blog
View all
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
“Hi, I’m Kevin, Linda’s lifelong soulmate. I’m a professional scriptwriter by trade, for which I’ve won many awards.
My mission is to bring Linda’s genius for colour & form into plain words everybody understands and enjoys.”
