David Choe is a 38-year-old artist born in the US of Korean descent who grew up in Koreatown, one of the slums of Los Angeles, and who amassed a fortune valued at more than $200 million thanks to “a ridiculous idea without sense”.
And it is that Choe considered “ridiculous and meaningless” the offer that Sean Parker made him in 2005: to decorate the headquarters of a small start-up in Menlo Park with his graffiti in exchange for a handful of company shares. Although the artist was reluctant at first, he finally accepted and it became “the best business of his life”, as he acknowledged in an interview.
Over the years, that small package of shares became more than 200 million dollars with the company’s IPO, thus surpassing the world record held by the British artist Damien Hirst with a mural auctioned at Sotheby’s for 152 million dollars.
The truth is that the method that Sean Parker offered Choe was the usual one that the company took with all the workers who worked to develop the pillars of what years later has become the largest social network in the world.
David Choe poses in front of one of his murals. ‘Reuters’.
Why did you accept the shares?
Choe says that he chose the option of payment in shares because at that time he did not need money, since, as he explained in an interview in Complex, he already had a comfortable economic solvency as a result of his exhibitions and works as an artist, although of course, with the arrival of Facebook shares “was crazy.” Although she explains that all that money has not changed her life too much.
“I was very happy with the life I led and I live in the same house,” however, Choe does explain that the money from Facebook has allowed him to buy things that make him have what he values most: time. He dedicates part of his money to travel in private jets and improve the work he does thanks to cutting-edge technology, having entered music or video composition.
Among his works that have had the most echo have been the paintings he has done for personalities such as Jay-Z, Linkin Park or even US President Barack Obama, for whom he worked during the 2008 campaign and who has commented that he has a portrait his drawn by the artist in his office.
The artist in his Chinatown studio. ‘Bloomberg’.
A somewhat calmer life
Over the years, Choe has been slowing down the intensity in his standard of living, and it is that in addition to his paintings, the artist has always been known for his public scandals.
In addition to having been arrested on several occasions for violent assaults or public scandals, Choe’s life has been especially intense as a result of his excesses, so much so that he suffered angina in a Las Vegas casino where he was going to play with ” pillowcases full of millions of dollars”, stayed in penthouses that were “harems of prostitutes” and in which drugs were a common element.
David explained to the Las Vegas Review Journal that angina struck him one day after he had not slept for five days, when he felt his senses fail him, he collapsed to the ground with $20,000 in chips falling out of his pockets, since then he has stopped the game.
Now, the artist leads a quieter life, spending more time at home where he focuses on the development of his artistic projects that, in addition to painting, include videos, books and even a podcast with the porn actress Asa Akira.
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