In response to last week’s post about the 100-million-dollar Monet, a reader remarks that the amount of money paid for an artwork does not always correspond to what that piece of art is worth in a spiritual sense.

Matt responds:

I think your comments are right on.  In our century, a lot of what sells art is called branding.  It’s an art of its own in this day and age, and a science, too.

In the past, it had many different names, but it was stealth branding.  People didn’t know they were being manipulated, but it really had to do with the rich and noble people, because the peons and destitute people didn’t have time to spend figuring out how they were being manipulated.

The noble people had their own kind of branding, and it was about how many castles you had, how many vassals you had, who was the king’s chambermaid, and who was the highfalutin squire who wiped the king’s ass.  That became very august as a duty.  People lined up to shake the hand that wiped the ass of the king.

Maybe they branded the name of chambermaid—who knows!  To aspire to be the king’s asswipe is probably the most ludicrous thing that could happen.

We as a species do very strange and wonderful things.  It probably gives a lot of ammunition to the comedians of the world to keep us half-sane on this moveable insane assylum we call the Earth.

Thanks for your comment,
Matt