Art in the portfolio: María Roldán triumphs with her masterpiece bills

The 26-year-old artist from Malaga paints little Picassos, Kahlos or Vermeers by hand and then lets the money flow.

Sometimes it is difficult to put a price on masterpieces of universal painting. But what if that price was the canvas itself? María Roldán, born in Andalusia in 1994, always wanted to be a flight attendant, but due to her tattoos her dream came to nothing. So she thought of turning things around: that it was her work that took those flights. Or that paid for them.

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After painting Michelangelo 's The Creation of Adam on a 10 euro note and checking that it was still legal (it will still have value as long as the serial number is not covered) when paying for a coffee, she found her calling and has already produced around 60 masterpieces in wallets around the world. Like the anecdote of when she handed over a note with a Picasso ( The Old Blind Guitarist ): "They asked me if they were the new five euro notes" the artist assured the newspaper Nius .

Since I won't be able to travel as much as I imagined, at least a part of me can reach many places.

Maria Roldan

Although he claims that his favorite painter is Vincent van Gogh , he has also captured, even on dollar bills, Gustav Klimt, self-portraits of Frida Kahlo , surrealism by Salvador Dalí or René Magritte, the impressionism of Claude Monet, the beaches of Joaquín Sorolla, the activism of Banksy , Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer, The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai, or The Scream by Edvard Munch .

In fact, he has even included scenes from films or even The Simpsons in his small creations. “If it is an image with a lot of detail, it takes me a long time. I can spend a whole day. Also, the paper used for banknotes is strange, you have to put many layers on it. First I make a sketch on a sheet of paper and I test it, since when working with small dimensions not all the designs turn out well,” he toldthe Verne portal .

More than €1500 worth of art

We have taken the trouble (curiosity kills, to be honest...) to calculate the amount spent on the "green canvases" by the artist from Malaga and the figure amounts to a total of €1,555 spent by the artist, without taking into account the expense in dollars, which is obviously lower. Of course, the sale price is obviously higher, although if you buy one of these works in her shop , keep in mind that the discount is included in the price 😉