Works by renowned Belgian artist Koen Vanmechelen went on sale at discount supermarket chain Aldi for €24.99 this weekend. They immediately sold out and now are popping up on resale websites for up to 20 times the retail price.
The limited edition of prints were part of a charity campaign by Aldi. Vanmechelen – whose works usually sell for thousands of euros – created a new work titled 'Cosmogolem, Giant of Hope'. Claiming that "art should be affordable for everyone," the supermarket sold 10,000 prints of the work for €24.99 apiece. All proceeds went to charity.
Across the country, the limited edition prints sold out instantly – in some stores, it was only a matter of minutes as customers bought several at once.
Not long after the first works started popping up on resale websites, such as 2dehands.be where the prints are being resold for multiples of the original cost. Some have asking prices of over €500. But Aldi has ruled out any action to prevent this.
"First and foremost, we are happy that the promotion was such a great success and that we succeeded in making art affordable for everyone," Luca Van Maldeghem, spokesperson for Aldi, told The Brussels Times. "What happens to the artworks afterwards is beyond Aldi's control."
