In a recent article featured on Artsy, Ian Shank tells the tale of how Salvador Dali (accidentally, or perhaps intentionally) sabotaged the market for his own prints. Being that McGaw Graphics is a publisher of prints, and of several of Dali’s prints specifically, made this a particularly intriguing story from our perspective. It is widely known that Dali was a bit of a character, and his persona carried global notoriety. He and members of his inner circle became increasingly aware of and interested in cashing in on his fame in any way that they could (the easier the better). Dali was fond of slapping his exuberant approval on anything from chocolates to automobiles if it was financially appealing. This approach to moneymaking eventually lead him to realize that he could make easy money with reproductions featuring his signature rather than working on a single piece for days or weeks. Once he discovered how much a sheet with his signature was worth, he began to sign as many as 1,800 sheets in an hour which could make him $72,000. It is claimed that he could have signed 350,000 blank sheets of paper in his career. The lore surrounding these pre-signed sheets gave way to many unscrupulous printers claiming that their reproductions were done on the authentic signed sheets when they very well may not have. It became difficult to prove one way or the other, which makes the current market for original signed Dali prints quite murky. McGaw currently carries 12 fine art posters of Salvador Dali’s classic works, licensed with the artist’s estate. See the Salvador Dali Poster Collection .
