Columbia College in the City of New York was the way it was put to us. New York City is a great resource for Columbia students, and as a college student majoring in art history, I haunted the galleries.

When I was about to graduate, my parents wanted to "mark the moment" with a gift, and I took them to the Martha Jackson gallery and pointed at a painting--a $1,600 painting mind you. My parents laughed and said that they were thinking of spending a couple of hundred dollars (on the outside).

I explained that they could buy the painting with a 10% discount and for $100/month. When that didn't work, I suggested that they keep the picture till they tired of it, and then give it to me. That didn't work either.

A few weeks later, they went to the gallery and made the deal.

The painting lived in their apartment until a year after my Mother died. The woman my Father re-married hated it, and he called to tell me that he was delivering my college graduation present--this was 1985 (22 years after graduation). But OK, a deal's a deal, and I still loved the picture.

When the picture arrived, Dale and the kids took a vote and decided that I should sell it. None liked it. So I did.

The good news is that the picture had appreciated, and I wound up with significantly more than they had paid for it. I told my Dad who laughed at the thought that his investment in my art history education had actually born fruit.

The bad news is that I just saw another picture, also from 1958 by Karel Appel. It sold for twice what I got.