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The Most Expensive Artworks in the World are Often Sold Behind Closed Doors. Here's What’s Happening.

Last year, a Van Gogh painting reportedly sold for $200 million. A Rothko for $195 million. A Frida Kahlo for $150 million. None of these transactions are in auction records or any public database.

For years, top auction houses like Sotheby’s and Christie’s have been quietly running invitation-only private auctions for their wealthiest clients.

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*Investing involves risk. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. See important Reg A disclosures at masterworks.com/cd.

Est. 2026  ·  Vol. I  ·  The Daily Grievance
Grump News
"The worst thing that happened to me today that you NEED to know about. And some other news stuff."
Wednesday, July 1, 2026 No. 016  ·  Price: Your Time
Morning Edition
❖   The Gripe   ❖
A Personal Affront, Reported Faithfully

Larry will not eat his breakfast unless I sit and watch him do it. I now have a companion who refuses to chew until observed and outranks me in my own kitchen. This morning he waited me out. I sat. He ate. My schedule belongs to the dog.

❖   The Damage Report   ❖
Today's News, Ranked By How Much It Ruined My Mood
🔥 Most Enraging
Five hundred dollars for a machine that makes ice, and you can start it from your phone in case walking to the kitchen has become too much. I have a tray. It makes the same ice and asks me for nothing.
😩 Most Exhausting
They built a snack counter, called it a lounge, and expect me to feel welcomed. A lounge has a chair. This has a line. I have stood in enough airports to know the difference, and so does my back.
😤 Unreasonably Annoying
So it turns out we have been contaminating Venus this whole time, flinging our germs across the solar system by accident. If there are aliens out there, they must think we're slobs.
🤷 Somehow Also Happening
A hundred monkeys broke out of their enclosure in Thailand. More than a thousand looked at the open door and decided against it.
❖   And Some Other Stuff   ❖
Briefly, And With Limited Enthusiasm
▸ An English police officer captured an escaped tortoise crossing a road in what was called the 'world's slowest foot-chase' — A police officer stopped traffic to carry a tortoise named Tom off the road, in what they are calling the slowest chase on record. Finally, a pursuit I could win.
▸ Hawaii researchers are testing roads paved with recycled fishing nets and household plastic — They are paving roads in Hawaii with old fishing nets and plastic trash, and early tests say it holds up fine. My tax dollars have built worse things out of better material.
▸ An overturned truck spilled its entire load of Michelob Ultra across a Connecticut highway before dawn — A truck tipped over and emptied a full load of Michelob Ultra onto a Connecticut highway before six in the morning. Somewhere, a man in a bar is telling this story as the worst catastrophe of his lifetime.
See you tomorrow, assuming none of us snap.
— The Grump  ·  (and Larry)
Built in a kitchen. Edited under duress.

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