The Santa Monica Museum of Art, although I’ve never visited it, has brightened up my week.  I read in a recent news story that the museum holds an art sale every year called “incognito.”

The idea is simple.  Hundreds of artists (over 480 this year) donate paintings, all of them in the same format (8″ by 10″) and the museum sells them for $300 each, regardless of who painted them.  Some of the artists in the sale are quite well known, and their works are worth much, much more than the $300 price.  Others are, of course, are worth much less.

Tickets to participate in the sale cost potential buyers a minimum of $100, and all proceeds go to benefit the museum.

Obviously, some of those who buy tickets for the sale are only trying to score a bargain and grab a cheap work by an expensive artist.  And word has it that some of the high-priced painters try to work outside their usual subjects and techniques to throw people off, while others produce works that are in their usual style.

What I love about this idea is that the Santa Monica Museum is forcing sale participants to decide what their relationship to art actually is.  Should buyers look for what the market says is good (the big names) or should you find something you personally like?  There’s plenty of room in the art world for both investors and collectors, and there’s nothing wrong with either position.

I’ve always assumed that anyone who invested in the stock market did so to make money.  At the very least, anyone who went to the trouble of buying individual stocks rather than mutual funds or exchange-traded funds had to be investing with the bottom line in mind.

As it turns out, that’s not necessarily so.  I’ve talked to several investors who are as interested in either the intellectual challenge or the casino-style thrill of stock investing as they are in building their wealth.  These investors are willing to absorb some losses because the satisfaction they get from picking a winner is hugely enjoyable.

It makes sense.  After all, people do all kinds of things with their money where there’s the possibility of a payoff, even though they know the odds are against them.  Las Vegas comes to mind, along with various lotteries and get-rich-quick schemes.  (I also include penny-stock investors in this group, especially since I’ve spoken to more than half a dozen of them who’ve been locked into a losing position on an illiquid stock for months at a time.)

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