RICK: Hey, what's up, man? How you doing? Pretty good. What do we-- obviously,
this is a Picasso, huh? It is. Yes, it is. It's a Picasso "La Celestine." What? [laughter] Les, la, la, la, la, la? "La Celestine." "La Celestine"? "La Celestine." When you say those
things, you got to say them slow because I'm--
- OK. --I'm slow. [laughs] Yeah, it's a Picasso. God, he did some creepy stuff. Yeah. RICK: [laughs] I mean,
the guy was just bizarro. He really, really was. You know, he actually tried
to start off doing, like, traditional art. Yeah. And everyone told
him he sucked, OK? And then he sort of came
up with his own style. No one had really been
doing that before. God, he made tons
of money, but I know he blew most of his money. He was a lush, and he
lived into his 90s. He had, like, a gazillion wives. So he did have to make a lot
of art to pay for all that. There-- there's great
stories about him too. There's stories about him
how he would go into a bar, drink all day long, and then
say, you got a piece of paper? He'd draw a little
something on it, sign his name at the bottom,
and said, here's my bar bill. Oh, you're kidding me. Wow. No, but they
didn't have a problem doing it because it
was still a hand-drawn original from Picasso. I mean, it wasn't a masterpiece
or anything like that. Right. But they still could
get a few hundred bucks for it back in the '50s. Right. RICK: Picasso was one of
the most famous artists ever to live. He dabbled in a lot
of different styles and is responsible for
creating some of them. And because of that,
some of his works could be worth a
literal fortune. So you want to sell it. Yes. Yes, I do. How much you want for it? [sighs] Well, it was
purchased for 9, so I-- 6,000? His stuff is so
all over the place. I-- I really don't get
it because you will take one Picasso etching right
here and one right here, and one is worth 10 times
as much as the other, and I have no idea why. [laughter] And to me, it looks
legit, but there is-- there's a chance that
it could be fake. Right. And-- are you-- are
you busy right now? - Actually, no.
- OK. Do you mind if we bring it
up to my buddy's art gallery? He'll take a look at it.
He'll give us a price. Then I can figure out
what I can pay you. Yeah, not at all. Give me a second so
I can grab my keys. You can follow me
up to the form shop. Sounds good. All right. JOHNNY: We're going to
head over to the appraiser, and I'm really looking forward
to making some money today. [cash register dings] - Moving up in the world.
- Moving up. This place is nice. BRETT MALY: I'm president
of Art Encounter. I appraise all
manner of fine art. We also have a
retail gallery, where we sell anything from
contemporary artists to old masters. A lot of times what he
would do in these pieces is he would put himself in. See, he'd be, you know,
this fancy-dressed musketeer character observing
what was happening. And a lot of the historians
at the time were saying, well, it was him kind of looking back
on his career and his life. Ah. And it's a-- it's a
nice piece, absolutely. Now, Rick, I know you
wouldn't be down here if this was a slam dunk, so. OK, first off, is it real? He's got no paperwork with it. No paperwork, OK. OK. And the other thing is, if
it's real, what's it worth? OK, gotcha. Let me take a closer look
at it here real quick. Now, what I'm looking
for is the plate marks. You would have the same plate
marks you'd see on, like, an etching or an engraving. JOHNNY: Right. You can see the plate marks
right where the image is, so you can see the indentations
there that the copper plate would've
made into the paper as it drove into the support. So--
- That's good. So that's good. So it's-- it's
definitely an engraving. I've seen this particular image
before, and this looks spot on. So based on the
particulars of the piece and from what I've
read on the history and how the cruise lines got the
particulars of this work, I-- I think it's a legitimate piece. Ah, that's good. So, all right, now
the big question. Is it worth 5 bucks, 5,000
bucks because it's a Picasso? I know one thing that--
that this doesn't have would be a signature. JOHNNY: Right. I-- I know that Picasso
did sign a lot of these etchings from the 347 series. Plus, it's a late
period etching. So from a value standpoint in a
gallery setting for this piece, you're looking somewhere in
the $2,000 to $3,000 range. Oh, wow. Yeah. Hmm. I think his family paid 9? Yeah. 9,000. When was this? 2006. OK, yeah, the
height of the boom. That's when-- that's when art
was just selling like hotcakes. I hate to break it to you. I mean, I'm a-- I'm a buyer at 1,500,
and that's, like, max. OK, would-- would
you possibly do 3? No, because I would
lose money at that. Oh, man. I mean, if I can sell it
for 2 to 3 grand in my store-- Right. --all I'm going to
pay you is 1,500 bucks. Right. Right. [sighs] OK, 1,500. OK, cool, man. All right. Grab it, bring it
down to the shop. We'll do a little
paperwork, and I'll pay you. OK, sounds good. All right.
Thanks, Brett. Cool, Rick. Hey, good to see you.
Always a pleasure. Hey, it was good seeing you. All right, nice to see you. JOHNNY: I felt that it was
worth letting go for 1,500. I could have hung onto it for
a few more years, but quite honestly, in my
opinion, I don't really think it's going to get
any better economy-wise within the next maybe five. Hopefully, I'm wrong.
