Don't write checks you can't cash.
How Salvador Dalí ran up enormous dinner tabs but never paid for them.
Salvador Dalí wasn’t an artist. He was a capitalist whose business was art.
Before Dalí, artists saw business as something beneath them. Dalí was different. He approached business with the same seriousness that he approached art.
Dalí collaborated with brands, designed advertisements, created logos (like Chupa Chups) and licensed his name.
Furthermore, he understood the power of a personal brand—before there was such a thing. To garner massive amounts of attention for both himself and his work, Dalí appeared on television talk shows, carried out publicity stunts and wore a ridiculous (but unforgettable) mustache.
Dalí was also thrifty.
He was a man of extraordinarily expensive taste. Yet, despite his affection for the finer things, Dalí managed to live much of his luxurious lifestyle entirely for free.
Dalí would run up enormous dinner tabs at fine restaurants in Paris and New York. When the bill arrived, he would never pay in cash. Instead, he would write a check for the precise amount that was owed.
However, before handing the waiter the check, Dalí would flip it over and sketch a small, intricate drawing on the back. It was often in his magical surrealist style.
Then and only then, would Dalí hand over the check.
The great dilemma.
It was here where the restaurant owner was put in an interesting predicament.
Does he cash the check and collect the money? Or, does he hold onto the artwork that was likely worth a great deal more?
As you can imagine, very few restaurateurs ever cashed the check.
Instead, they framed it and hung it on their wall.
By Cole Schafer