The news that 271 works by Picasso valued at nearly $80 million recently discovered in an electrician’s garage, shocked the art world. Then there was the art fiasco that left egg tempera on the face of funnyman and serious art collector Steve Martin when his German painting was discovered a forgery.

The art business can be rough and tough. It’s a big business too.

“So Big!” was even the title of an exhibition at the Cotuit Center for the Arts earlier this year on Cape Cod.

I’ve been fortunate to have photographed some big time artists over the years: sculptor Robert Arneson, courtroom illustrator Howard Brodie, bigger-than-life storyteller in stone Korczak Ziolkowski, photographers Gordon Parks and Richard Avedon.