Late spring and summer is the season for beach balls, sunburns, ice-cold beverages and perplexingly high-selling art.
Yes, while most of us plebes are preparing for block parties and lake trips and afternoons spent staring into the vents of an air conditioning unit, another segment of the population (museums and people popularly referred to as the one percent, have you heard of it?) is gearing up for the summer's onslaught of art auctions.
Earlier this month, collectors got a taste of what the auction season has to offer, but they still have Sotheby's Impressionist & Modern Art sale and Christie's Post-War and Contemporary Art sale -- among many others -- to look forward to this June. And just because you don't have millions of dollars to drop on quizzically big-ticket items, that doesn't mean you shouldn't get in on the fun.
Could you cut it in the auction world? Take our 20-question quiz and figure out whether you can tell the difference between a million-dollar artwork and a piece of garbage (read: stock photo). If you score over 15, you just might want to start saving your pennies and invest in what the fickle art market has to offer. If you score under five, well, try a Roth IRA instead.
Scroll down to see just how much those million-dollar artworks cost.
1. Jean-Michel Basquiat, "Untitled," $57.3 million.
2. Pablo Picasso, "Jeune fille endormie," $21.9 million.
3. Stock photo.
4. Maurice de Vlaminck, "Sous-Bois," $16.4 million.
5. Stock photo.
6. Stock photo.
7. Stock photo.
8. Franz Marc, "Grosse Landschaft I (Large Landscape I)," priced between $5.8 and $8.7 million in 2016.
9. Milton Avery, "The Mandolin Player," $1.5 million.
10. Cy Twombly, "Untitled," $70.5 million.
11. Stock photo.
12. Stock photo.
13. Stock photo.
14. Damien Hirst, "The Importance of Elsewhere -- The Kingdom of Heaven," $2.3 million.
15. Maurizio Cattelan, "Him," $17.2 million.
16. Stock photo.
17. Cady Noland, "Oozewld," $6.6 million.
18. Stock photo.
19. Jeff Koons, "Beach House," $2.7 million.
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