Secret Postcard Art

The RCA Secret 2011 celebrated its 18th birthday this year.  The Royal College of Art in London holds a huge one day sale each year featuring postcard sized art for about $70. Sounds expensive to you?   Maybe not so much, considering you could own an original Manolo Blanhik, Olafur Elaisson or possibly an Anish Kapoor.

Yoko Ono

The Secret is that buyers do not know who has created each piece until they buy it and then check the signature on the back. This year there were 2,900 works of art, created by 1000 invited artists, including RCA postgrad students.

Manolo Blanhik

The Secret Sale is held to raise money to cover the budget for the grants and bursaries, with the goal being over $200,000. Postcards by famous artists can go up for auction at prices as high as $24,000.

Anish Kapoor

People line up for days before the sale, camping out in chilly weather so they are among the first to purchase a Secret piece of art. Buyers can purchase up to 4 pieces. Go to the RCA Secret website to see more details, and view images of all of the art: http://dams.rca.ac.uk/res/sites/RCA_Secret/index.html