Fish Fantasy: A Fake Bidding War for a Mischa Richter Original?

For reasons I don't pretend to understand, cartoonist Mischa Richter's original New Yorker cartoons tend to be undervalued by the art market. Many examples in the blog archives show eBay sales in the $40-60 range, occasionally edging up closer to $100. Personally, I see no reason why a good Richter New Yorker original shouldn't, from time to time, inspire a spirited bidding war. It actually happened, but now I am left to wonder whether it was all staged.

The case in point is Richter's art from the issue of June 18, 1990. It's a simple enough idea, conveyed with the use of a thought bubble but requiring no caption. I was pleasantly surprised to see the work sell for a healthy $560. But a month later, the very same drawing was back on the market from the same eBay seller. This time it sold for $47.99. How does one explain this?

Mischa Richter
Original art
The New Yorker, June 18, 1990, page 54

Mischa Richter's signature

Mischa Richter
eBay listing ended November 1, 2021

https://www.ebay.com/itm/384416160837?hash=item5980fd1c45%3Ag%3AupoAAOSwEmNhJllU&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Mischa Richter
eBay item description

Here then is a quick summary of the two sales, held about five weeks apart and resulting in winning bids more than $500 apart:

The first sale, which ended September 21, saw nine individual bidders place a total of fifteen bids. The auction seemingly would have ended in the $40 range if it weren't for two outliers, bidding $550 and $560, respectively, during the last minute of a ten-day auction.

The work soon returned to eBay anew, so what went wrong? The seller evidently could not complete the transaction with the high bidder. Was the underbidder offered the work as well? If so, at what price? Or was the high-stakes bidding war all a fake? And, if that is the case, why on earth would anyone want to fake a bidding war?

The second sale, ending November 1, had only seven bids placed by three bidders. Richter's work was sold for $47.99, well within the typical range of his New Yorker originals on eBay.

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1990-06-18/flipbook/054/

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