Mail Art can become very expensive, but I've got a few of these stamps if anyone would like a swap

[Valentine Mark Herman]

From the BBC

"An $8.3m (£6.2m) stamp is returning to the UK for the first time in 143 years, after being sold at auction to a British rare stamp dealer.

The British Guiana 1c Magenta was bought by rare stamp dealer Stanley Gibbons last month.

The dealer said that, gram for gram, the stamp is thought to be the most valuable man-made item in the world.

It is the only survivor of a small batch printed on the former British colony British Guiana, now Guyana.

The stamp, printed on magenta paper and measuring 29 x 26mm, bears a three-masted ship and the colony's motto, "We give and expect in return".

It went into circulation in 1856, when a shipment of stamps was delayed from London and the colony's postmaster asked printers to make three types of temporary stamp until the shipment arrived.

Once it arrived, the postmaster ordered them to be taken out of circulation - but one of the one cent stamps survived.

It was discovered around 20 years later and returned to Britain for a short time, but was then sent to a collection abroad.

It was discovered around 20 years later and returned to Britain for a short time, but was then sent to a collection abroad.

The stamp has been on display at the Smithsonian National Stamp Museum in Washington DC, on loan from its former owner, the US shoe designer Stuart Weitzman.

It has marks from all of its previous owners, including the government of France and John du Pont, who was convicted in 1997 of murdering Olympic Gold Medallist David Schultz and died in prison in 2010."

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Thanks Bradford. Wiwe words there.

2 observations:

i) Andy Warhol said that he couldn't understand why anyone would pay, say $100,000 for one of his dollar paintingsprints to show that they were rich when they could have plastered a wall with 1, 5, 10 etc dollar bills to the value of $100,000

ii) that same someone could today use a non-real currency like Bitcoin to puchase non-real art that is non-ownable, ie NFT art.

[PATRICIA LANDON]

Bradford is a fountain of knowledge:)

[Bradford]

After its initial purchase at face value, it was next sold for 6 shillings or about $1.50 US in 1873.  When it sold in 1970 it was only $280,000.  The $8.3 million realization is less than it achieved earlier and about half what some expected if you can believe that.

It reminds me of what my high school art teacher and friend said of Picassos and the like selling for $50-100 million.  He collected photographs after retiring from teaching.  Photographs by famous photographers bought at auctions and from galleries occupied his collection. Annually, he visited André Kertész in his apartment to purchase a photograph.

When one of the Picassos or Van Goghs would make the news for a high realization, he would become disgusted and opine, "I could build a museum dedicated to fine art photography and acquire the collection to exhibit within it for less than the price of that one painting.  The public could enjoy much more art as the result."