Munch’s ‘The Scream’ sells for record $120M… um, why?

I’m fond of saying, particularly at art galleries and when people are discussing art, “I don’t know much about art, but… oh hey, wait.  I DO know stuff about art!” and then babbling on with lots of art twonk jargony buzzwords that I picked up doing my Bach of Visual Arts many moons ago.  Having this illustrious but usually completely useless piece of paper hanging on my wall has given me an appreciation of art, caused me to attempt to critically analyze art on occasion and even allowed a vague understanding the significance of art within the human experience.  But there are so many things about art that I swear I will never understand.

Someone being prepared to buy a ‘masterpiece’ for a record $120M is one of them.  And a particularly ugly piece of art it is too, imho.  So, was the purchase for the love of the piece or purely a business investment?  If you believe the Washington Post, it was likely an investment as the sale headlined their “Business” section demonstrating to all and sundry that it is the monetary value of the piece that is important, and not the aesthetic or historical value of the piece that the world holds dear.  I wonder if the purchaser is even an art lover?  Will they permanently loan it to a gallery or is it destined to be locked in a safe somewhere?  Do they have any appreciation whatsoever of the significance of this piece at all or have they bought it on someone else’s advice?  The one thing that becomes startlingly evident though, is that they have TOO MUCH BLOODY MONEY.  Whenever I read about artworks selling for enormous amounts of money, it scares the hell out of me.  Yes, art is important.  Yes, it should be valued by society.  Yes, it reflects humanity in a way that no other form of expression can.  But seriously?  Hundreds of millions of dollars?  Surely that sort of money could find better purchase elsewhere in the world…

‘Nothing Ever Happens’ – Del Amitri

Post office clerks put up signs saying position closed
And secretaries turn off typewriters and put on their coats
Janitors padlock the gates
For security guards to patrol
And bachelors phone up their friends for a drink
While the married ones turn on a chat show

And they’ll all be lonely tonight and lonely tomorrow

Gentlemen time please, you know we can’t serve anymore
Now the traffic lights change to stop, when there’s nothing to go
And by five o’clock everything’s dead
And every third car is a cab
And ignorant people sleep in their beds
Like the doped white mice in the college lab

Nothing ever happens, nothing happens at all
The needle returns to the start of the song
And we all sing along like before

And we’ll all be lonely tonight and lonely tomorrow

Telephone exchanges click while there’s nobody there
The Martians could land in the carpark and no one would care
Close-circuit cameras in department stores shoot the same video every day
And the stars of these films neither die nor get killed
Just survive constant action replay

Nothing ever happens, nothing happens at all
The needle returns to the start of the song
And we all sing along like before

And we’ll all be lonely tonight and lonely tomorrow

Bill hoardings advertise products that nobody needs
While angry from Manchester writes to complain about
All the repeats on T.V.
And computer terminals report some gains
On the values of copper and tin
While American businessmen snap up Van Goghs 
For the price of a hospital wing 

Nothing ever happens, nothing happens at all
The needle returns to the start of the song
And we all sing along like before
Nothing ever happens, nothing happens at all
They’ll burn down the synagogues at six o’clock
And we’ll all go along like before

And we’ll all be lonely tonight and lonely tomorrow