What’s amazing, that up until the late Middle Ages nobody cared who the artist was. Then the ‘Cult of the Original’ (not my words) began to emerge, and voila, the artist could issue scarce works because people wanted something created by someone and the attributed works became scarce.
Most works of art today, are not valued due to their artistic merit, but due to the provenance to a scarcely available artist.
From this model, the best advice from an art auctioneer to an artist is: ‘Die early and you’ll be rich.’