Prepare to invest $25-$50K, and as I said earlier, get an earlier work with pristine provenance.
Sac/Bee reported Kinkade’s company owes 1,000-5,000 creditors a total of $10-50 million, according to bankruptcy documents. A list of creditors more than 100 pages long was appended to the bankruptcy filing. It included a cardboard-box company in Sacramento, the state Board of Equalization and small art galleries in Folsom, Auburn and Elk Grove. At the top of the list were Karen Hazelwood and Jeff Spinello, Virginia gallery owners to whom Kinkade’s company said it owed almost $2.4 million. The debt stemmed from a fraud claim the couple won in arbitration in 2006. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the award last June.
CBS’ 60 Minutes segment said Kinkade sells more than art. There is a whole array of Kinkade-branded items on the market. “Thomas Kinkade is a multi-dimensional lifestyle brand, similar to Martha Stewart or Ralph Lauren,” says Kinkade. “You can put a Thomas Kinkade couch beneath your Thomas Kinkade painting. Next to the Thomas Kinkade couch goes the Thomas Kinkade end table. On top of that goes your collection of Thomas Kinkade books, Thomas Kinkade collectibles, Thomas Kinkade throw rugs. You can snuggle your Thomas Kinkade teddy bear.” And, he adds, “You can put all of that inside your new Thomas Kinkade home in the Thomas Kinkade subdivision.” More than 100 homes, all modeled on his cutesy, cozy cottages, have been built in Vallejo, Calif., outside San Francisco.