Talk about an Old Master: Nature, which has been described as the greatest artist of all, did its thing about 5-million years ago and inadvertently created some very high-end art. The National Wall Art Gallery in the Decorative Arts Center of Florida, 305 Willow Ave., Tampa, has a dramatic display of stone "murals," slabs of lake bed cut from the Green River Formation in Wyoming, embedded with fossilized fish and plants during the Eocene epoch. One, the palm frond shown above, is extremely rare and priced accordingly at $135,000. Others begin at $5,000, and most range from $9,000 to $25,000, says gallery owner Hal Leek. Preservationists may be assured, he said, that they were dug up under strict federal paleontological guidelines. The collection will be at the gallery through Sept. 27. (813) 258-2244.
