Auri Inc (AURI)

[amadeus]

as far as Peggy goes, she of course had a lot to do with making the art she collected valuable. Others too like the DeMenil's who collected over 10,000 paintings. When Max left Peggy, and she later closed down her Art of this Century gallery in Manhattan the emerging artists of the New York school could hardly sell a painting. Rothko couldn't sell his paintings for $750 bucks. Fast forward and in the last month one of his sold in the auction market for $82 million. Ms. DeMenil commissioned 14 giant Rothko's for the Rothko chapel. So now the lil place has a billion dollars+ of art hanging on the wall. So yah waiting 50 or 60 years certainly helps. But the Monet that just sold for $54 million netted the seller a nice profit. If I recall correctly it gained $40 million in value in just over a decade.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-06/asian-buyers-grab-van-gogh-monet-at-sotheby-s-368-million-sale

The global art market is $65 billion a year, bigger than the US tobacco industry and the alcohol/spirits market. Driven by a relatively small population of serious collectors comparatively. And yes the Chinese are a very big part of that now.