741 Blue Poles

Some wag in the government apparently suggested to sell this painting worth $350 million and put the money toward the national debt. He got pulverised in the court of public opinion ... cos don't mess with da cultcha, what with how little we 'ave.

Methinks:

That’s a great idea: Sell that painting (which was bought for a measly $1.3m) for $350m, and while we’re at it, let’s sell that God-awful Picasso we have here in our AGNSW too; and don’t stop there, throw in Edmund Capon’s Cy Twombly doodles, purchased for an outrageous $4.5m (Capon may want to buy them himself; I wrote about this before, blog 196). I reckon there’s a lazy half a billion dollars right there.

But don’t use the loot to reduce national debt, what a waste that would be; invest the money in Australian art, Australian artists, Aboriginal artists. The likes of which have great difficulty selling a painting - probably one of a dozen they produce in a year - for more than $5k; even well established painters rarely pull more than - say - $30k for a major work. What a screwed-up world, the art world.

(For the record: I like Pollock's Blue Poles ... what a great painting; I'm not kidding.)