more on art as a blood sport. visual art as a philistine game

Are the visual arts just an immoral, philistine blood sport for a tiny percentage of that 1 percent ? Time to ask that very serious questions, I think.  

But what is moral and what is immoral in the world of art? Prices have reached such extravagant heights that perfectly legal art sales in respectable auction houses have the piratical derring-do of some legendary crime. The climax of the Frieze art fair week for Sotheby's in London was the sale of a Gerhard Richter painting from Eric Clapton's collection for £21.3m – a new world record for a work by a living artist.

To get an idea of that price, the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge is currently trying to find £3.9m to buy a painting by Poussin, one of the most revered artists in the European canon. It is thought that on the open market it would fetch £14m. Clapton's Richter is worth twice as much as a Poussin – apparently.

Hilary Mantel got £50,000 for winning the Booker prize this week. She seemed very happy with that, as most people would be. Visual art has become qualitatively and quantitatively different from other cultural spheres: it is turning into a philistine game that has nothing to do with the serious creative endeavour epitomised by Mantel.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2012/oct/18/art-blood-sport-ultra-wealthy