If a picture is worth a thousand words, why is this one worth nearly half a million dollars? In its latest auction held earlier this month, Los Angeles Modern Auctions sold an Ed Ruscha painting for $468,750 – close to three times its estimated price. There were plenty of bids for the work titled “Crescent Heights Becomes Laurel Canyon,” but ultimately the winner was a private collector who had an emotional connection to the piece. “People come to his (Ruscha’s) work with their own associations, and I think that’s what Mr. Ruscha tries to foster,” said Peter Loughrey, who co-owns the Van Nuys auction house with his wife Shannon. “It attracted so many different people for so many different reasons.” The acrylic painting delineates with a single red dot the point where Laurel Canyon Boulevard turns into Crescent Heights Boulevard in Hollywood. It also depicts the world-famous L.A. streets of Hollywood and Sunset boulevards, which resonate with a large audience, including the Loughreys. “My connection was I lived on the corner of Crescent Heights and Laurel Canyon in an apartment building,” said Loughrey. “That’s where I started my company.” Despite the painting’s personal meaning, Loughrey had to provide a reasonable estimate of its value to start the bidding. He compared this process to selling a house, where brokers look at similar properties that have sold to determine a price. However, instead of considering location, condition and square footage, an art auctioneer looks at the painter, subject matter and medium when making side-by-side comparisons. When putting a house up for sale, sometimes the seller will price the property below value to increase the potential of a bidding war. This can result in the home selling for above the estimated price, which was the strategy used to sell the Ruscha piece. Joe Maddalena, owner of Hollywood memorabilia auction house Profiles in History in Calabasas, also compared art to real estate but said regardless of a work’s estimate, the market will determine its actual worth. “Like the stock market, it corrects itself for value,” he said. “(With art) you are seeing a function of true capitalism.” Sales for the auction totaled $3.8 million, as the couple sold 94 percent of the 431 lots by value. For the Ruscha painting, the market spoke loudly. Modern Auctions had multiple bids at or close to the price the piece sold for, potentially increasing the value of Ruscha’s other works at future auctions. “I think the entire art world will look at this price and say ‘Oh, that’s what a (Ruscha) piece of this size and quality is worth now,’” said Loughrey. “That’s going to be the expectation.” – Stephanie Henkel