Pawn Stars: The Rare Leonardo DiCaprio Gem Rick Snagged From A Star Wars Actor

Some paintings are valuable for obvious reasons, especially if they're the works of Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, or Leonardo da Vinci. But as "Pawn Stars" pawn dealer Rick Harrison discovered, there's also value in a painting by another famous Leonardo whose surname is DiCaprio.

Originally, the painting by DiCaprio was owned by "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and "The Rise of Skywalker" actor Greg Grunberg, who didn't acquire DiCaprio's one-of-a-kind work on the open market. Instead, Grunberg got it directly from the "Titanic" star to help him raise money for his Talk About It! charity to benefit the Epilepsy Foundation.

During the segment of the Season 14 episode titled "La La Land" in 2017, Grunberg said the painting was really unique simply because, "It's Leo DiCaprio, man. Come on!" The untitled piece was signed by DiCaprio and included a photo of him holding the painting. Harrison agreed with Grunberg that the piece was going to attract attention. "They're going to fall in love with it because you're never going to get another painting from Leonardo DiCaprio unless he suddenly decides to become an artist," Harrison said. Grunberg replied, "Right, but that's not going to happen."

As such, Grunberg felt that his asking price of $6,000 for the DiCaprio painting was fair. First, Harrison did his due diligence and got confirmation from autograph expert Steve Grad that the actor's signature was real. After Grad valued the painting at $7,500 to $8,000, Harrison offered Grunberg $4,000. But following some back and forth, the two decided on $6,000.

Greg Grunberg has a personal reason for raising money for his epilepsy charity, as his son, Jake, was diagnosed with the disorder at age 7. Among those who have helped Grunberg in his efforts over the years is Rick Harrison, who in 2015 joined the actor for his "Talk About It for Epilepsy!" netathon to raise money for the Epilepsy Foundation.

Regarding the Leonardo DiCaprio painting, Grunberg told Harrison during his "Pawn Stars" segment in 2017 that "The Revenant" best actor Oscar winner wasn't the only star he approached to do paintings for his charity. "So the story behind this was, I was raising money for my charity, and I thought, 'Why not ask some people that you don't normally think of artists from Ringo Starr to Mike Love to John Mayer, Bradley Cooper — all these great people — send them a canvas, send them paint, have them paint something, and then I'll try and sell it,'" Grunberg explained to Harrison. "And it worked."

Harrison said he admired DiCaprio for contributing his time and talents to Grunberg's cause. "Leo is a mega-mega-mega star. He painted this for charity, which was a really great thing," Harrison said. "He has a lot of fans out there, so I think I can make some money on it. We'll wait and see."

To date, there is no information available regarding how much Harrison sold the DiCaprio painting for.

The DiCaprio canvas wasn't the last time Harrison mulled over buying a celebrity painting. During Season 19 in 2021 on "Pawn Stars," a Prince painting caused a huge fan debate since there was no way to validate that the late music legend actually worked on the piece.