Mistakenly Placing Value On Art

ONE OF THE WAYS in which the world's largest corporation, Wal Mart, is giving back to the community of mankind is in the magnificent Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, deep in the wooded wilderness of Northwest Arkansas, where Wal Mart was founded. Visit Crystal Bridges online to get an idea of its beauty and grandeur. Its only been open for about two years, and it is world class in conceivable every way. The building is a modern architectural marvel, giving the impression of being always surrounded by pure glass and pure water. The choice to confine the contents to American art was wise; it gives the opportunity for a more comprehensive permanent exhibit. The investment must be a billion dollars or two, and the Walton Wal Mart money could probably afford to build the world's most magnificent museum of European art next door. But where does one get the art? Isn't most great art, especially European art, spoken for, owned by somebody? Well of course. Thus the collecting of great art with which to open a brand new art museum is a cut throat affair, involving enormous amounts of money, negotiation, and legalities. A lot of sordid, petty nonsense, in other words. How sad, that for us cultural capitalists modern art has disintegrated into nothing more than a big money enterprise, under the mistaken belief that great art, or any art, can possibly be assigned a monetary value, meaningfully. The fact that the monetary value of art is determined by what is essentially a free market of buying, selling, and bidding does nothing to mitigate the travesty of the system. Its worse than major league baseball. Great art is beyond monetary considerations. Great art is preicless. Or it should be.