Greenspan Portraits Sink in Value

Here's a sign of the times: Whimsical portraits of Alan Greenspan—from his days as a rock star central banker—that were once hot commodities have sunk in value. Not too long ago, these oil paintings and prints by Erin Crowe fetched up to $10,000. Now, not so much. The Wall Street Journal checks in with a Tampa businessman man who paid $150,400 for one in a charity auction in 2006, before the market fizzled. He hasn't been able to sell a single one of the 100 prints he made, and the portrait is under his bed.

"I doubt these Greenspan paintings could be resold for what people paid for them because they are indicative of the times," says one lawyer (who keeps his Greenspan painting in a closet). "They were painted in a bubble economy, and Erin's paintings were bubbles." As for artist Crowe, she's moved on to a new subject—Ben Bernanke. (More Alan Greenspan stories.)