WTF is 1 Euro Experiment?

How come a businessman in 2006 paid $140 million for the 1948 Jackson Pollock painting named No. 5?

How come an artist can sell ALL her paintings for €10.000+, yet another artist can´t even give them away?

It´s quite fascinating.

10th December 2009 I read  “The magic of dynamic pricing” by Seth Godin. It suggests changing the price of  goods “based on time or demand” . It got me thinking.

Even though I have no experience as an artist, would there be a way for me to, one day, sell a painting for €10.000?

I came up with the 1 Euro Experiment.

OK, so WTF is 1 Euro Experiment?:

- Almost every day I will sell a new painting of mine

Pricing:
– The first painting, day #001, will sell for €1
– The price of every new painting increases with €1. The 100th painting costs €100
-  Minimum price will always be the painting number. Fx. €65 for the 65th painting.
-  A painting can be put on an auction and fetch a higher price then the minimum price.

Selling:
– Paintings can be put up for sale anywhere. Place will be revealed for every listing.

The making:
– A painting can be painted with oil, acrylic, spray, markers, fairy dust or anything else.
– For fun, inspiration and learning I may sometimes collaborate with another artist.
– Sometimes I may make another piece of art (sculpture, photo, installation) instead of a painting

Before you write this experiment off completely please try and consider these scenarios:

- If we now know that my first painting (#001) will cost €1 and after 27 years my painting #10.000 will cost €10.000, will it be difficult to sell the first painting?

- If I dont sell any of my first 47 paintings, but on the 48th day I sell painting #048 for €48, will there then be demand for my previous paintings?

- If I put a painting on an auction with the minimum bid of the day. Fx. minimum bid is €88 for painting #88 , but people like it so much, so there is a bidding war and it sells for €1200. What happens to the value of all the previous paintings (#001-087)? Will they be in higher demand and regarded as cheap?

- And the following day what will the demand be for painting #089? Will it easily sell for €89?

- If on the 400th. painting I collaborate with another artist that normally sells his paintings for €5000 will it be dificult to sell this picture for €400?

I guess there are no answers to these questions yet… we will see…!