Trophy Art
Super expensive art attained as status symbols for people with too m
You've heard of trophy houses? Those large mansions that the nouveau riche build on former farmlands that have been sold and subdivided? Trophy wives? Rich old magnates who marry younger former models as the ultimate feather in their cap?
Make way for Trophy art. This past Sunday, cosmetics magnate Ronald S. Lauder bought the Gustave Klimt painting of a portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, the wife of a Jewish sugar industrialist, for $135 million dollars.
Yes, this is a knockout of a painting in high Klimt Viennesse Style, it is a shimmering golden masterpiece. And yes, it has a sordid past.
Seized by the Nazis from Bloch-Bauer's uncle during World War Two, the famous Klimt portrait was among five other Klimt paintings that ended up at the Austrian Gallery of Art. This year all five Klimt paintings were awarded back to the niece of the original owner, Maria Altmann, 90, who resides in California. This painting was the subject of a custody battle.
But $135 million? Many would scoff at the idea of a painting having such a high monetary value. After all, it is a thing made of canvas and paint that hangs on a wall. The painting can't even open a can or tell time. So why is this painting worth so much money?
First, who was Gustav Klimt? Only one of the most influential painters of his time in fin de siecle Vienna, and a leader of the art nouveau style. Klimt's figure/ground pattern play, his beautiful women, his languid dreamy world that is glittering gold with jewels of color. The next time you go to an art museum, go look for a Gustav Klimt if the museum you're going to is lucky enough to own one. These are spellbindingly beautiful, sad, and passionate paintings.
Perhaps the ultimate value of this artwork is that only one exists in all the world. The sale of the Klimt painting sets a new high mark in the world of fine art sales. Lauder has purchased this art masterpiece to share it with New York. The purchase of the painting is also great promotion for Lauder and his art museum in Manhattan, The Neue Galerie. But I think it also signals a new high in the market of art. This sale has raised the bar of the value of fine art and the price can only go up from there...right?
Get your trophy before they're gone.
