Artist: Yoshitomo Nara
Title: “Cosmic Girl” – Eyes Open, Eyes Shut (2008)
Price purchased: $800USD
Edition: 500
Date purchased: 2009

Story:  I first came across Nara’s work while looking at some office photos of music executive Lyor Cohen.  The show I was watching or the articles I was reading had nothing to do with his art collection, but the pieces were just hanging around in the background.  Despite just being background material, they just stood out and popped for me.  I then started googling images of his homes and saw more of his extensive collection.  Not really into art at the time, I did my research and I quickly realized I would not be able to come close to a Nara original (they’re over seven digits) and began looking for affordable prints.  At the time, there really wasn’t anything authentic released by the artist until  I stumbled on this set.  This set of prints, “Cosmic Girl” was released in 2008 in an edition of 500 published by BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.  The pieces were not signed or numbered but were still very hard to find.  After looking for a while, my wife and I found a set at a decent price on Ebay.  This was our largest Ebay purchase to date and was definitely scary given that we’ve never even seen these in person.  The prints came in perfect condition and they’ve been permanent fixtures in our home since.    Interesting story was while I was looking for photos to use for my blog, I came across a Christie’s auction in 2012 for the set.  Check out the realized price below!  Realistically, this is inflated and you can probably snag a set for between $2,500-$5,000 USD.  Regardless of the pricing or value, we’re very happy with these pieces.