Has anyone seen this painting?
If you have please bring it back to the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
I used to think of Australians as cultural philistines obsessed with sport to a degree that is both obscene and frustrating.
Was I wrong!
This week the big news is about art theft and a record price of a cool $3 million paid for a Brett Whiteley (see older post) painting (The Olgas).
When I was a youth, there was public storm about the cost of a Jackson Pollock painting $1 million dollars at the time. Blue Poles, now hanging in our National art gallery seems in hindsight to be a real steal for the price.
Nobody seems to blink at the notion that $3 million dollars has been paid for an Australian painting. Obviously a million isn't worth as much as it was thirty years ago.
I have a great deal of awe for the person who has so much money that they can indulge in their passion for art collecting, even when it means that they have to put in special orders for stuff available only in museums.
Unlike the collector who purchases art at a auction, hoping that eventually he can cash in his investment at a decent profit in years to come, the furtive collector, the one who buys stolen art that belongs to museums, has a very limited ability to flaunt their new acquisition and even less chance of selling it at some point on the open market.
The point is that it's nice to read something in the news that isn't about sport or politics or disaster or war.
2 comments:
I think if anything in the world is worth stealing, it's probably good art. But, no, I don't have your painting.
BTW, when I was in Australia a few weeks ago, one Saturday afternoon one of the networks was running live lawn bowling.
I'm sorry, lex, but when lawn bowling is on a major network, the obsession with sport is over the to, no matter how you slice it.
southfield, there is no limit to what the armchair sports enthusiast will sit through.
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