Hypothetical: Value after an Artist Dies???

[Royal Ass.]

I want to preface this that by asking this question I certainly don't hope any MTG artists drop dead anytime soon!

But I think this is an interesting concept to think about considering this will eventually happen and as with the greater art wold, an Artist's death does effect the value of the work.

My question would be, what do you guy's think an artist's death would do to effect the value of a signed card? For example, say Cristopher Rush were hit by a buss tomorrow, do you think there would be a significant change in value to an autographed Lotus? (Don't worry, I'm not thinking of knocking off Rush to see my signed lotus go up in value!)

Also, does anyone know if any Magic artist have passed on since the beginning of the game and has that effected any cards which they signed or changed the value of their original art work?

A lot of times people argue whether a signature increases or decreases the value of a card, however if the artist where no longer around to sign cards than I could see this effecting value because then there would be a stagnant number of cards signed by the dead artist. Demand could then out pace supply.

I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts on this.

[yawg07]

Personally I love signed cards, and yes if the artist is deceased, I think the signature is more valuable/higher importance to have.
I really really want a set of signed (preferably Japanese) Tangle Wires by Glen Angus.
I know a lot of people who value signed Brain Freezes pretty highly because of Tim Hildebrandt's death.

[l0qii]

In both the art world and world of signature collectors the value of an item goes up after the person dies simply because no more can be made, but the amount it goes up has less to do with whether the person is dead or alive than with the original popularity of the item. A signed card probably isn't going to become more collectible if the artist is no longer with us, it would have to be something that there was already demand for in the first place. The value then increases proportionally to that demand.

Keith Parkinson, while much more well known for his earlier fantasy art for TSR, did the art for 16 Magic cards (including Mind Over Matter) and died October 26, 2005.