The Big Inch

The previous record for good things in small packages was $4,448 per sq. in.

for Rembrandt's Titus, sold last year to California Collector Norton Simon. At Sotheby's in London last week, a Flemish painting of St. George spitting the dragon brought $616,000. Since the oil, attributed to Hubert van Eyck, is the size of a postcard (5| in. by 41 in.), it cost a record $26,552 per sq. in. At the new record's rate, a canvas a yard square would cost $34,411,000, more than 15 times the highest price ever recorded for a painting. A Rembrandt etching, called the "Hundred Guilder" print for the healthy sum it brought in the 1640s, brought an even rosier price of $72,800. But the record price for a print was set when a late 15th century engraving by a German master known only as P.M. sold for $89,600.

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