bad-debt art

   Art that is sold or donated because the owner is deeply in debt. When a work of art attains this status, its market value is typically much lower than it had been recently. This term has been seen in both American and British publications since its first known uses in articles about the failure of the booming Japanese economy, which took place in 1991. The context in which this term was most frequently used was in telling such stories as that of the Japanese businessman named Saito who purchased see thumbnail to rightVincent van Gogh's Portrait of Dr Paul Gachet for 82.5 million US dollars in the 1990, a record price for any work of art. Saito was shortly forced by financial difficulties in the 1990s to sell the painting at a loss (its current whereabouts not publicly known). Also see deaccession, patron, and Post-Impressionism and Vincent van Gogh.