Was Picasso's Nude, Green Leaves and Bust really worth £66m?

[n2doc]

When Picasso's Nude, Green Leaves and Bust sold for £66m at Christie's in New York in 2010, it set a record as the most expensive auction sale of a painting ever. Less than a year later, Tate Modern has The Most Expensive Painting on view, thanks to the anonymous owner and widespread press coverage of the loan. So now we can go along to Bankside and ask a somewhat crude question: is it worth the money?

To my surprise, the answer is no. It comes as a surprise because I love Picasso. If money was just numbers (and in the world of high finance and art sales, perhaps it is just numbers), I would not blink at any price quoted for one of his paintings. But this is not la-la land. It is a troubled world with a troubled economy, and the blame for the problem, all sides agree, has something to do with bubbles, credit gorges, fantasy economics. And yet, ever more impossible prices are being paid for paintings.

For now, this Picasso is all about its price tag, and the display at Tate Modern is poisoned if you know its damned value. The painting has a gold frame, unlike the other Picasso works in the room, as if to stress its expense. But when you look closely it is not a gold frame at all: it has simply been painted gold.

...

I am probably being unfair. But money has corrupted this display; it looks like a serious museum room but feels, when you know about the auction and the dollar-eyed publicity, like an expensive jeweller's. Why not just open a high-end boutique at Tate Modern? It would probably be very popular.


the rest
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2011/mar/28/picasso-nude-green-leaves-bust

[GodlessBiker]

1. Yes.

[MineralMan]

2. Apparently it was to the high bidder in the auction.

Everything is worth what someone will pay for it. That's the only rule for evaluating things like this painting and other unique objects. That's the auction house rule, too.

[Zanzoobar]

3. To me, it's not worth a nickel

To the buyer it's worth what was paid.

A debate over this is pointless.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
One man's trash is another man's treasure.
Et cetera, et cetera, a la Yul Brenner.

[old mark]

4. K&R- It certainly was worth the money to someone...As a painter, I have little use

for the "art business". I used to use galleries, and have someone who "represented" me for a while, but not for decades now. It is a sad and bad system that we have made for selling and valuing art of all types. People regard art objects as investments or status pieces or snob/self aggrandizement facilitators. Artists who depend on selling their work for their income are really in terrible trouble, even with the internet to display their work.

Equally bad-or worse-is the system that tells us what is good art and wat is not, and who are "real" artists and who is not. It strikes me as odd that those who sell and criticize art have more power and respect and money than those of us who actually make it.

I personally knew many artists who killed themselves rather than continue to exist under these conditions.


mark

[MineralMan]

5. I participate in a couple of forums where particular classes

of antiques are discussed. Newcomers on those forums often show up and ask, "How much is my antique widget worth?" The rules of the forum prohibit discussion of values, for very good reasons. The only appropriate answer is "Put it on eBay. You'll know within a week." Same thing applies to all unique objects or objects that are not current commodity items.

[lumpy]

6. Picasso's stuff has always been about pricetag.

I would put it in the same catagory as the value in $20,000.00 watches.

[HopeHoops]

7. Funny story from when the Smithsonian had the Picasso exhibit some years back...

My eldest daughter was in fourth grade or so at the time. She'd just read a book on Picasso and we took the Metro downtown to visit the museum. Toward the back of the exhibit, there was a room with subdued lighting. A bunch of people were standing around quietly looking at the pictures and this tiny voice pipes up, "this must be from his blue period." Pretty much every head turned around.

Later, we were in the modern art wing. They had a Warhol exhibit. We finished up there and entered a room with like 20' high by about 6' wide canvases that were entirely white except for one uneven blue line running top to bottom on each one. I noticed my daughter standing behind a rather stereotypical beatnik sort of guy who was intensely focused on this 4'x4' canvas that was entirely black. She said, "Papa, I don't get the point of this one."

The beatnik sort of guy immediately chimed in, "well if you notice, the brush strokes all go this way except for this one little square where they go in a different direction." She shrugged and turned away.

[xchrom]

8. some sectors of the art business have retained their value or skyrocketed --

as in this instance.

but others have had their values very depressed for a long time. and i think that's been more the rule than not lately.

[UndertheOcean]

9. It is priceless in my opinion. n/t

[Tracer]

10. I agree that it's worth whatever a willing buyer wants to pay, but ...

... I often wonder what is the criteria that museums use to choose what to display.

In this instance, I'm talking about a local museum that recently had a showing of modern art.

One of the displays appalled me.

It was 3 framed pieces of "art" that consisted of the "artist" snapping a blue chalk line across a white background, and in front of the "art" was a black plinth with a pile of blue chalk on it.

I just stood there, mind-boggled.

[WatsonT]

11. Art has not inherent value other than what we place on it

so if someone believes it is worth that much then it is.

[GodlessBiker]

14. True, but that applies to everything.

[WatsonT]

16. Yep

So the true value of any single item is what one person is willing/able to pay for it.

[unblock]

12. better the rich buy works of art than acts of congress....

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

13. How can it possibly be worth so much ...

It's a painting. It cannot throw a no-hitter, or consistently hit a three-point jump shot. These are the kinds of things that are worth that kind of money.

:hi:

and, before I forget, this "maybe" needs a sarcasm thingy:
:sarcasm:

[LanternWaste]

15. Conspicuous consumption...

Conspicuous consumption is both... to an absurd and unnecessary level.

[hunter]

17. Woohoo! I now have a copy of it!

:woohoo:

Two Copies!!



:woohoo: :woohoo: I'm gonna be rich!!!

There are many science fiction stories about matter replicators and how they might affect the economy...

What will happen when anyone can purchase a Picasso that is indistinguishable from the original?

We're already there with music.

Will the production of art become a performance, with little value placed on the product, but high value placed on witnessing the production? Would you buy a ticket to watch Picasso paint?

Which reminds me of a link that IS NOT SAFE FOR WORK!!! This guy paints as performance art, and his works are expected to "increase in value" too...

IS NOT SAFE FOR WORK!!!

http://www.pricasso.com "There are Millions of Artists in the World...BUT ONLY ONE WHO PAINTS WITH HIS PENIS"

IS NOT SAFE FOR WORK!!!

[kenny blankenship]

18. The first thing it tells you is that the rich aren't being taxed nearly enough

in whichever country the auction winner resides.

[Marr]

19. Money is just as abstract as art, so sure. Why not.

My video game award is worth ten million snickerdoodle credits.

[JustAnotherGen]

20. Naaah!

:rofl: But I think Modigliani kicked Picasso's ass so nothing Picasso did . . . with the exception of his portrait of Modi is worth much of anything to me! :rofl:

[Cleita]

21. Any object whether art or otherwise is only worth what

someone is willing to pay for it. Keep this in mind when some huckster tries to sell you gold or other assets for investments. Art is often an investment for those with too much money, so any Picasso will fetch cash as long as there are collectors out there. Personally even if I were filthy rich, I probably would do what I do today and buy what I would like hanging on my living room wall and that is mostly prints of French Impressionist artists. I can't get enough of them.

[Stevenmarc]

22. From a curatorial standpoint, no but ....

That has nothing to do with what someone is willing to pay in an auction enviorment.

It's simply not a remarkable painting, it's not a transitional work nor is it the best of his nudes.

[MilesColtrane]

23. That's a big problem for the growing number of billionaires.

It gets harder and harder to distinguish yourself from the mere multi-millionaires.

They've got to find, and outbid each other for, that one perfect object that says, "This person is superior in taste, class, intelligence, and morals."