# challenge to rich bastard "art lovers" **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 23, 2004, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/challenge-to-rich-bastard-art-lovers/225813 "2004-01-23T19:55:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/challenge-to-rich-bastard-art-lovers/225813/21 "2004-01-25T20:26:00Z")
> [@Milum](#): > > Aw shoot, Haj (May I call you Haj?), I don’t mind at all. I want to be your friend. I added you to my Buddy list. I bet I will learn a lot from a smart guy like you, Haj. You know, like investing and all. > > Catch you on the flip-flop, Haj goodbuddy. 🙂 FTR, the orignal post was directed at the OP, not you. Feel free to flipflop me anytime though. 🙂 Haj ---
**Author:** ![Aldebaran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Aldebaran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aldebaran)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/challenge-to-rich-bastard-art-lovers/225813/22 "2004-01-25T23:12:03Z")
> [@Milum](#): > > Jeez! Don’t you folks read? The Fine Art Painting Market is a joke. Jeez! Really? Can you give more interesting information on this? > [@](#): > > (by the way the term “Rich Bastards” is a term of derision. All rich people aren’t bastards and all rich people don’t have the need of the ostentatous display of wealth through pretentious paintings that may or may not be authentic. Really? OK then… Wait … Then how did you come to the original conclusion that people who buy art do that out of some “need of display of wealth”? And what do you consider to be “pretentious paintings”? Can you be very specific about that? > [@](#): > > All pricesless painting have now been painted and painting as a vibrant artform is on its way out.) I don’t know where you live, but you make it sound as if it is in the middle of nowhere. I’m sorry, but I think you should go out a bit more and look around you to discover the vibrant artform that you declare to be “on its way out” but that nevertheless is there and is what you would call “priceless”. Salaam. A ---
**Author:** ![Priam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/77aa72/32.png) [@Priam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Priam)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/challenge-to-rich-bastard-art-lovers/225813/23 "2004-01-25T23:33:55Z")
I don’t know what to say except that, no matter how exact the replica is in technique and materials used, its just not the same in my mind. I’m speaking more about historical objects than anything else, because I have more of a passion for history rather than art. You could make parchment exactly the way it was made in the late 18th century, make ink out of the same ingredients, and absolutely make a perfect copy of the Declaration of Independence, but that is not the same paper written on by one of our Founding Fathers, not the instrument of defiance which was used to set about a new nation where before only colonials existed. That makes a difference to me and I think the reasons are similar for art lovers. The original is not just about the beauty in the art itself, but being able to have a link with the genius that spawned such inspiration. Maybe it’s a form of hero worship, but I fail to see how that’s a bad thing or how shelling out the cash you have to receive the opportunity is any more of a bad thing than shelling out hundreds of dollars to hear a band you love live rather than on video. ---
**Author:** ![Milum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@Milum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milum)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2004, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/challenge-to-rich-bastard-art-lovers/225813/24 "2004-01-26T01:57:37Z")
So I said… Jeez! Don’t you folks read? The Fine Art Painting Market is a joke. Jeez! > [@](#): > > Then **Aldebaran** said smartly…“Really? Can you give more interesting information on this?” Damnation **Alderbaran** , don’t you read? I’ve read three or four or five books this past year decrying the irregular practices of art dealers worldwide. Pretense sells paintings, and the whole art industry oprerates in concert to maximize profits and scam rich clients and art ignorant buyers from museums. (An exceptionally good expose was written by a Chinese chick who followed the art auctions in New York and London.) Read the newpapers, Sothebys gets busted for misconduct every time they get caught. Go to a library and find your own art business books. Read them. Then Aldebaran said I said…“All priceless painting have now been painted and painting as a vibrant artform is on its way out” > [@](#): > > so **Aldebaran** said… > I don’t know where you live, but you make it sound as if it is in the middle of nowhere. > I’m sorry, but I think you should go out a bit more and look around you to discover the vibrant artform that you declare to be “on its way out” but that nevertheless is there and is what you would call “priceless”. Now, now, Aldebaran, I would hardly call the Heart of Dixie “nowhere”. Now don’t you take no offence, Alderbaran, but don’t you think that it might be you that’s a tad sheltered? Look around you…see that printer? That cheap printer that you got there will produce colors and shades and interplays of light with a clarity that would make Da Vinci go out and get a real job . Besides, remember; they don’t make old masterpieces anymore. Go to the window. Look at the sky. Right now photographs of immense beauty are being sent to Earth from Mars fifty million miles away. There, Aldebaran, is the future of art, and all other modern art(with the exception of Picasso) is only hype and pretention. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/challenge-to-rich-bastard-art-lovers/225813.md?page=1)