Rare #/77 Vintage 1981 Yoda Mardi Gras Print Bourbon Street New Orleans, LA Numbered Artist's Proof - Rarer By Degrees Than a Revenge Poster

UPDATE 09/30/26: This exquisite rarity will be included in a Spring auction this coming March '27 (I will not say who, but they are well known), so if you want it before a couple of tech bros cockbattle it up to $12,500 by the time the gavel drops, get in now. Esp. if we happen to have a sale going on. Just sayin. One way or another it will be owned by someone else in less than 6 months. Why not make that Jedi you?

RARE Vintage 1981 Yoda Mardi Gras Print Bourbon Street New Orleans, LA Numbered Artist's Proof -- Rarer By Degrees Than the Revenge Poster.

This is one of those "if you have to ask" things. Do a little digging and see what you come up with. This print is LEGENDARY. In your research you may even come across threads where people have offered a $1,000 bounty to find one of these. To say it is rarer than a Revenge of the Jedi one sheet is an understatement. Hop on feebay and you can find at least a couple Revenge of the Jedi one sheets at any given point in time. YEARS transpire, however, without a Yoda Mardi Gras print being offered ANYWHERE, let alone a signed and numbered Artist's Proof. There were 770 in the single Red Issue edition, and then there were 77 Artist's Proofs. This is one of those. And btw, I went to Tulane and spent a lot of time at Mardi Gras, but even then I never came across one of these. Nor did I ever see a Yoda on a Bourbon Street lamp post for that matter (but I did see some really crazy shit). I honestly believe most of these prints that may have survived the 80s were ultimately destroyed by Katrina, or at least that took a significant toll. There were only 77 of these APs, and 770 of the closedmedition, ever printed, so subtract time, carelessness of some drunkard getting a rare print during Mardi Gras 1981, and it even surviving the first night? Then four more decades? I'm not trying to overstate this folks, it really is that rare. If you want instant aura, and to roll the slickest swagger in your collector circle, drop this on them. MTFBWY

Update, one of the 770 Red Issue, unframed, rolled examples sold 3 years ago on PropStore Auction in 2023 for $1512. This is one of 77 Artist's Proofs, it is beautifully preservation frames, it is immaculate, and the gentleman from whom I acquired it got it directly from the artist, so it has even more provenance. (I was a lawyer in AZ and met a lawyer in CA who had also lived in New Orleans; when I bought this from him about 20+ years ago he told me he received it in barter exchange for his legal services. Perhaps he advised the artist on I.P. issues.)

In 2025, another non-AP, non-framed, non-provenential, copy sold on Heritage Auctions for $3000.

We are going to be putting this up for auction with one of the big auction houses if it doesn't sell here; currently we are talking with PropStoreAuctions about listing it in their Spring '27 catalog.

Given the passage of time and the escalation of prices in the collector market, the one that went for $1512 is honestly probably worth $4500 now based on more than an additional year passing since the last auction result of $3000. Look at what you would pay for a clean, framed Revenge of the Jedi, and then increase value by several fold due to incredibly low pop, provenance, Artist's Proof Edition of 77, mystique, and cross subject matter appeal. So, while we believe it will realize more at auction, we are keeping it at $5000 here in our shop.