We recently showed you this clip of David Choe painting the walls of Facebook's new head quarters. What we didn't tell you is that when David Choe first painted the walls of Facebook's first offices the then Facebook president Sean Parker offered Choe the choice between cash or shares in the company.
Choe, who has said that at the time he thought the idea of Facebook was ridiculous and pointless, chose the shares.
Well according to the New York Times, those shares are expected to be worth upward of $200 million when Facebook stock trades publicly this year.
"Although Mr. Choe initially led a rough life including run-ins with the law, he is wealthy even without the Facebook offering. (It is unclear whether he sold any portion of his Facebook holdings on secondary markets.) Now a very successful artist with gallery shows and pieces exhibited in major museums,
Mr. Choe declined requests to be interviewed for this article; he said he wanted to maintain his privacy. He has, however, published an obscenity-strewn book of his art, “David Choe,” which includes images of the multimillion-dollar murals at Facebook.
Mr. Choe’s page on Facebook shows the life of a modern-day renegade artist. Among the images of his graffiti, there is a trail of images of him partying with scantily clad women and spending large amounts of money on alcohol. In recent weeks, Mr. Choe promoted photos of a $40,000 bottle of alcohol; a single shot, he boasted, costs $888."
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