Since 1960, Bouguereau's values in the market place have exploded,
doubling on average every 3.5 years. From works selling for an average $500
to $1500 in 1960, they have accelerated to where in the last three years alone
his auction records have been repeatedly broken another 4 times. In 1998
The Heart's Awakening sold for $1,410,000 at Christie’s New York. In 1999
Cupid et Psyche, Enfants sold for $1,760,000 also at Christie’s to be
surpassed the very next day at Sotheby’s when Alma Perens owned by
Sylvester Stallone sold for $2,650,000. That record only lasted one year until
May of 2000, when Charite sold for $3,520,000 back at Christie’s. Over
the last 20 years his paintings all over the world have been taken out of their
crates, basements, storage rooms and attics, dusted off, many cleaned and
expertly restored, and today over a hundred museums and institutions proudly
have his works on permanent exhibit. Reproductions of his paintings are selling
by the millions in poster shops and gift stores world wide, and there is much
evidence that they are even outselling the reproductions of paintings by any of
the most famous modernists. The definitive full catalogue raisonne on
his life and work is being completed by Damien Bartoli and the Bouguereau
Committee and after 25 years of work will be published in 2003 or 2004 in time
to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of his death in 2005. Bouguereau is
one of the most important artists in history.
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