BRUNO COTE "Lac Pointu" Painting Oil Price: $ 6900

Exhibitions:
Canadian Fine Art - 2008-02-18 until 2008-02-28

Gallery Statement:
Friends and clients.

Gallery 260 has been formed to recognize Canadian Fine Art and Classic Cars of North
America. What on earth do these two have in common? Well, to our mind, both are
forms of art that we feel have not been properly recognized in the North American
art world. Canadians, by their nature, are not ones to promote their own kind,
particularly their most celebrated artists. And the collector car market in North
America has been the exclusive domain of the car hobbiest, having been almost
completely ignored by the serious art collector. We think both of these phenomena
could benefit from some new thinking!!

The most expensive Canadian painting sold to date is, in typical Canadian fashion, a
tie between Paul Kane's Portrait of Maungwudas and Lawren Harris' Baffin Island at
$2.2 million. This compares to United States artist Jackson Pollock whose Number 5,
1948 is rumoured to have recently sold for $140 million. Take a look at the work of
Canadian artist Jean Paul Riopelle and ask yourself why the most expensive Riopelle
is worth only $1.2 million? Why the Group of Seven have not exceeded the $2.2
million mark? Why Emily Carr and David Milne just recently broke a million? And
Norval Morrisseau is still only in the six digits.

At Gallery 260, we are going to do our best to develop a market for these masters of
Canadian art. We believe that Canada has a number of artists that deserve world
wide recognition. And the world needs to be informed about these great Canadian Art
Legends. But even more importantly, we have many, many Contemporary Canadian
Artists who continue to live and paint the world around them. Take a look for a
moment at Bruno Cote, Armand Tatossian, John Joy etc. etc. The colour and texture
in their work is truly Canadian.

As i look around our gallery, i have discovered there is something truly unique
about Canadian Art. Our use of colour is what sets us apart and makes us different.
Perhaps it is our ever changing seasons, the shorter days and longer nights, the
diversity of our people, the land mass of our nation. What ever the reason,
Canadian artists are colourists in the supreme. And it is this use of colour, that
our Gallery 260 will celebrate. It will do so in two ways. It will cater to the
serious and informed collector looking for investment grade art. But it will also
cater to those new to the art scene, who are looking to invest in more affordable
contemporary art, where there is good potential for an increase in value.

And what about the classic cars? Well, like Canadian art, we feel that classic cars
have for too long been neglected as truly investment grade art. The most expensive
car sold to date was a 1954 Mercedes W196 for $24 million. And only about five cars
have ever sold for more than $5 million. Why are some Picasso's worth $100 million
and yet some of these Classic Cars from the 30's, which are truly art in motion, are
worth less than a million. In my view, just like Canadian Fine Art, many people in
North America, and particularly Canadians, are not even aware, and have never even
seen, one of these pieces of rolling art.

Many of the Classic Cars are so rare, there may be less than 10 of them in the
world. Sometimes there is only one. They are often much, much rarer than fine art.
Due to this rarity, the market has only recently begun to develope. It is only
within the last 10 years that there are now catalogue auctions for Classic Cars,
where for art work, this has been the case for decades.

The history of these classic cars, the men who designed them, the financiers who
invested in them and the entrepreneurs who brought them into production like Howard
Marmon at Marmon Motors, Edsel Ford at Lincoln, and E.L. Cord at
Auburn/Cord/Duesenberg are legends of a by gone era, artists in their own right.
Just because they are three dimensional working, moving, useable machines, makes
them no less art, In fact i would argue that with these characteristics, they might
be even more interesting than traditional fine art.

As Gallery 260 is limited in its space, our goal is to display at least one of our
classic cars and rotate it every quarter. We will be able to display more fine
art, but we will also try to rotate it on a regular basis. What you cannot find on
our floor, we will try to have posted on this web site. One thing about our
gallery that is truly unique is that we believe in the investment value of art and
cars, so we own every piece we sell, whether it be an Old Master, Contemporary Work
or Classic Car.

Our Nortel and Air Canada stock didn't do to well. John Roth and Robert Milton made
millions while we lost our shirt. So we got tired of other people managing our
money and decided to take things into our own hands. We now invest only in what
we can touch, feel and see. So far, our Group of Seven and Norval Morrisseau values
have been doing just fine. We feel there must be more people out there like us
that would be interested in investing in Canadian Fine Art or Classic Cars. If so,
come and visit us today as we are open seven days per week, or have fun browsing our
on-line catalogue and helpful links.

Good luck in your search!!