A Brief History
On November 13, 2013, a painting painted by Francis Bacon in 1969 called Three Studies of Lucian Freud sold for an incredible $142.4 million, the most ever paid for a painting. Bacon was an Irish-born British painter who lived from 1909 to 1992. The painting depicts three poses of his friend and artistic rival Lucian Freud.
Digging Deeper
On the same day, an orange, marble-sized, 14.82-carat diamond known simply as “The Orange” was auctioned off by Christie’s in Geneva for $35.5 million, a world record for a diamond of its color, and just a day later, a pink 59.60-carat diamond known as the “Pink Star” was sold by Sotheby’s for $83.2 million! History and Headlines Trivia: Sotheby’s reacquired the “Pink Star” when its buyer determined after the sale that he actually could not afford it.
Think about it, a quarter of a billion bucks for 2 rocks and a painting, and not even a painting by an old master at that! In fact, to the untrained eye of the author of this article, the painting looks like junk. Better looking art can be found at any college art show.
As far as the diamonds go, that author’s mother taught him that if you are rich, people will assume your jewelry is real, so why waste the money? If you are poor, people will assume your jewelry is fake, so why waste the money? This philosophy has also been imparted by the author onto his own children, in the hopes that they do not throw away money that can be used for much more practical things on vanity pieces instead.
What better use could be made of those millions and millions of dollars? A college scholarship fund to give your name a lasting legacy, perhaps? The founding of a homeless shelter? Of a shelter for battered women? Drug rehab as good as rich people get but also available to the poor and working class people? Food for the hungry? Or, simply give it to 261 disabled veterans and make each a millionaire. The point is there are millions of better ways to spend the money. Recent studies confirm that rich people give percentage-wise less of their money to charitable causes than poorer people do. Is that goofy or what?
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: So, are rich people spending their money wisely? Should they share more?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Gale, Matthew and Chris Stephens. Francis Bacon. Skira Rizzoli, 2009.
Peppiatt, Michael. Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma. Skyhorse, 2009.
