Calculating Rates of Return Although appealing to more refined tastes, art as a collectible has not always performed so profitably. During 2010, Deutscher-Menzies sold Arkies under the Shower , a painting by renowned Australian painter Brett Whiteley, at auction for a price of $1,100,000. Unfortunately for the previous owner, he had purchased it three years earlier at a price of $1,680,000. What was his annual rate of return on this painting?