[masona]

When I worked in an art gallery in Union Square in SF, we had a client coming in from China to look at an original Chagall. The problem: the crate was arriving from Switzerland only an hour before the client. When it got there we raced to unpack everything. The piece was huge - the extremely ornate gold frame must have weighed 80 pounds. And there was a stray nail sticking out of it! We only had a few minutes so I laid it down flat on the floor and unscrewed the back to take out the art.

I'll never forget the feeling - when I lifted the canvas out of the frame, it was as light as air. All those millions for this piece and it could have floated out of my hands. It was a beautiful feeling I've never forgotten.

We got the nail out out of the frame, patched it up, put the art back in, and sweated through the client viewing. They bought it, of course. It wasn't even that great of a painting. But somehow the framing adds so much to the aura of the piece. It's more than an art form to be honest - for most art out there it's the one thing that adds weight. For art that is valued at whatever someone will pay for it... the framing is everything.