



The first surprising part of this video is that Sears actually sold art; apparently the department store chain had been selling oil paintings since the the early part of the 20th century. I suspect that as the mass availability of affordable art reproductions became available to the middle class, Sears decided to rebrand purchasing original art for the home, with the help of that consummate sophisticated gentleman, Vincent Price.

Price was not only a household name, but an avid art collector and gallerist (think of him as the Dennis Hopper of the 1950s). The Vincent Price Art Museum in East Los Angeles houses the actor’s vast collection in a 40,000-sq. ft. Arquitectonica building that opened on what would have been the actor’s 100 birthday, May 27, 2011. From the Sears archives: