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Someone just spent $236,000,000 on a painting. Here’s why it matters for your wallet.

Late last year, a Klimt sold for the highest price ever paid for modern art at auction.

An outlier sure, but it wasn't a fluke. U.S. auction sales grew 23.1% in 2025. The $1-5mm segment even grew 40.8% YoY.

Meanwhile, Apollo’s chief economist Torsten Slok said to expect ‘zero in return in the S&P 500 over the coming decade.’

So, that's where it gets interesting.

Each environment is unique, but after dot-com, post war and contemporary art grew about 24% annually for a decade. After 2008, about 11% for 12 years.

It’s also had near-zero correlation with the S&P 500 since ‘95.*

Now, Masterworks lets you invest in shares of artworks featuring legends like Banksy, Basquiat, and Picasso.

  • $1.3 billion invested across over 500 artworks.

  • 28 sales to date. 

  • Net annualized returns on sold works held 12 months+ like 14.6%, 17.6%, and 17.8%.

Shares can sell quickly, but my subscribers can skip the waitlist:

Skip the waitlist

*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."
Sunday, June 28, 2026 No. 011  ·  Price: Your Time
Morning Edition
❖   The Gripe   ❖
A Personal Affront, Reported Faithfully

I woke at four forty-seven AM. There was no reason. I could not return to sleep, and could not begin the day. It is always four forty-seven. Never four forty-six, never four forty-eight. Someone tell me what's happening.

❖   The Damage Report   ❖
Today's News, Ranked By How Much It Ruined My Mood
🔥 Most Enraging
Prices went up during Covid and never came back down. The component shortage is just this year's reason.
😩 Most Exhausting
This is an old tale. You are free until someone offers you fruit, and then you belong to them; ask Persephone.
😤 Unreasonably Annoying
He built three pizzas in the time it takes me to decide I do not want to cook.
🤷 Somehow Also Happening
A parakeet reached thirty-two by keeping its ambitions small, a strategy I am beginning to respect.
❖   And Some Other Stuff   ❖
Briefly, And With Limited Enthusiasm
▸ A NASA satellite caught a giant tsunami behaving in a way scientists did not expect — Even the tsunami declined to follow the model, which is the most relatable thing the ocean has done.
▸ A new study suggests the first primates evolved in the cold and dry, not the tropics, and some may have hibernated — Our earliest relatives got through the cold by slowing down and sleeping through it, which I have been calling a character flaw.
▸ Gracie, the giraffe that escaped a Texas ranch and spent days on the loose, was found safe about four miles from home — The giraffe is home, four miles being the full extent of a giraffe's interest in escape.
Go touch grass. Then complain about the grass.
— The Grump  ·  (and Larry)
Grumpnews. The newsletter that knows you're tired.

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