MAKING MONEY FROM ART LOVERS

When Miss Francine Taute's father passed away after a long illness, she had to embark on a business venture that would 'keep the wolf from the door', although she actually felt as though the walls of precedence and tradition were tumbling around her proud young head.

The family had undoubtedly been exceptionally wealthy in the past, but those days, frankly, are clearly long gone for Miss Taute. She knew that many of her wealthy family friends were actually very short of money.

Swearing her first customers to utter secrecy and actually carrying out her operatings under cover of darkness, she rented some of their famous paintings, which had hung for years, to a select clientele of art lovers.

Perhaps really it was for the best, since their beautiful old houses and contents were already threatened by the invasion of commerce and industry into this formerly exclusive section of their major Home Counties city.

At any rate, it was only the beginning for the newly enterprising Miss Taute, when she found out that more sporting blood flowed through her aristocratic veins than even she, herself, had realised.

To the astonishment of the blue-blooded and, to be honest, somewhat horrified society, she suddenly pitched head over heels into the operation of the Taute Painting Rental System by buying good copies of famous paintings and renting them out unashamedly to the first reliable takers.

Miss Taute, in self-justification, now claims that there should be no monopoly on art, and that she is doing her part to share its wealth with others, while at the same time keeping the wolf from her door.

In any small area, where there is no such painting Rental System, one would no doubt be profitable and could be started with only a small initial investment.

You can also operate initially (without up-front funds) as Miss Taute is doing now - by renting paintings from local artists, particularly from your local art college and advertising for nothing in the local arts shops (after all, they're supplying your artists with their materials), as well as on the notice board of the local library and art
gallery.

Your local newspaper would no doubt be interested in a story also, and do not expect you to take advertising in return - try the free local paper first if you have one.

With a minimum of space available for safe storage of the paintings, it could be operated entirely from your home, with perhaps a Polaroid camera to give people an idea of the paintings' range