Priceless

I went to the annual Macmillan charity Gulls Egg lunch in the City earlier this year and won a prize in the silent auction: lunch for 14 people in the boardroom at Christie's. This included a private tour of any paintings which were on sale. When I read about the forthcoming Impressionists' sale in November, I booked the lunch which was greatly enjoyed by all yesterday. One of their specialists gave us some fascinating insights about the Picassos, Pisarros, Warhols, Richters etc which were coming up for sale. The estimated prices were staggering: £8m for Warhol's Liz Taylor, £3m for his Mohammed Ali, £25m for one of the Picassos and £10m for a stunning Richter post-war painting of a plane. My favourite was a Signac pointillist painting of a coastal scene in the South of France. For a mere £7m it could be mine. Somebody told me that there is a yield on paintings: if you own one: you also own the rights to any revenues from postcard, greetings card etc sales. It doesn't sound a compelling investment argument.