Christie's auction house sold Monet's 'Grainstack' at a record $81.4 million in 2016. Unfortunately for the 1890 impressionistic painters, that big posthumous paycheck isn't doing them much good. It is the most cliche of artist jokes, our works become more valuable the day we die; Not all of us, but most are destined to starve as we strive for the greatness that may (unlikely) come with our demise. What I would like to expound upon is how artists appraise their work before their posthumous fame... How can one put a value on creative intellectual property when so many factors affect the value of a work: the brand of the artist, the skill, the current art market, the size of the work, the time it took, the cost of materials, how hungry the artist is, the composition, the story behind the piece, the patron behind the piece...
