She loves her inexpensive outfits from the mall, but Michelle Obama will soon be sporting something much fancier than anything you'll find at J. Crew.

A spokesman for top Italian designer Giovanni Bosco has confirmed that President-Elect Barack Obama is looking to purchase a $30,000 Harmony ring made of rhodium and encrusted with diamonds as a thank you gift to his wife Michelle. We expect the future First Lady to receive the ring in time for her husband's January inauguration ceremony. The gift is a thank you for her support throughout the last two years of campaigning.

One of the world's rarest and most precious metals, only about 25 tons of rhodium are mined each year, setting the price at over $7,660 per ounce -- or about ten times the cost of gold. The ring may be uncharacteristically extravagant for Mrs. Obama, but we're sure she'll find a way to wear it with all her usual grace and confidence.

UPDATE: Apparently, the veracity of the story is in limbo. Obama's team is flatly denying the existence of the gift, and the purported jeweler has clammed up, refusing to comment at all. Is this just an attempt to paint the soon-to-be First Couple as out-of-touch with the "common American"? Or is it just a silly rumor?

The election of Barack Obama has given the newspaper industry a bit of a boost. Papers in major cities sold briskly on November 5. One of the papers in Obama's home town, The Chicago Sun-Times is particularly proud of their cover from that day. Not only did it sell 700,000 copies making it the paper's best -selling issue in their 60-year history but Oprah held up a copy of the Sun-Times on her show and said it was the best cover worldwide. Now The Sun-Times is offering 44 limited edition prints of the cover on eBay as a limited edition high-gloss giclee print. The high-gloss print is hand-made by Printmakers Chicago and signed for authenticity. The pieces will be parceled out from now until December 9 with numbers 2-15 available now. Bidding starts at $350.

Shrewd eBay sellers are also selling a variety of papers from that day and from various other moments on the campaign trial for exorbitant mark-ups.

Barack Obama has already had an influence on fashion and while some have used his sartorial style or his image as a touchstone perhaps none have done so as flamboyantly as Jean Charles de Castelbajac. The showpiece of his most recent runway show was a bright yellow dress that features a sequinned image of Obama. The short dress was part of a colorful line with dresses emblazoned with clouds, superhero insignia and beauty queen faces in tiaras complete with flowing hair. In The Telgegraph de Castelbajac calls Obama, the most charismatic leader in politics today.

A group of 13 highly covetable artists including John Baldessari, Frank Gehry, Ed Ruscha, Jasper Johns and Richard Serra have donated print editions of their work to raise funds for Presidential candidate Barack Obama. Los Angeles-based print publisher Gemini G.E.L. commissioned the group of artists to create what they're calling the "Artists for Obama" portfolio, a set of prints in a limited edition of 150 (not including Jasper Johns's iconic Flag, at right). Art lovers looking to acquire the rare set of prints must donate a minimum of $20,000 to the campaign.

[via The Los Angeles Times]

Artist Jonas Perkins has created a line of silver jewelry and sculpture for those supporting Barack Obama. The line features earrings, pendants and a lapel pin featuring the slogans "Yes We Can" and "Change You Can Count On" with the Obama logo. The pieces range from $30 to $78. The really pricey item is the Barack Obama bronze bust which Perkins, a sculptor from Fredericksburg, Texas, has created. The limited edition piece titled "Yes We Can" sells for $2,500.

When contemporary art cult fave Shepard Fairey started "campaigning" for Barack Obama, he created original collages assembling inspiring portraits of Obama above titles like HOPE, PROGRESS and CHANGE. We saw them silkscreened on tee shirts worn by the likes of Ryan Phillippe that soon became impossible to get, selling for thousands on eBay. Now for the true connoisseur -- of politics and art -- the rare opportunity exists to bid on one of the original three pieces, OBAMA HOPE. Currently at $60,000, the piece is being auctioned by Westport, CT-based CharityBuzz, which will donate profits to the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, providing access to the arts to disadvantaged urban youth. CharityBuzz will accept bids until July 24, but if you miss this potentially revolutionary piece of art, you can at least order the sticker version online at Sticker Robot. Big spender yours truly just snagged ten of them.