In 1950, former US ambassador John Whitney paid $30,000 for Picasso’s Garçon à la Pipe. Allowing for inflation the painting ought to be worth around $250,000 in today’s money but in 2004 Garçon à la Pipe became the most expensive painting ever sold, to an anonymous bidder for $82.5 million. So what is it worth? I mean, really worth.
Putting a value on culture is a perennial problem exacerbated by the fact that the majority of funding for artists and arts institutions (who are in the business of creating culture) is now derived from the public purse. Understandably, governments and the relevant NGOs cannot be seen to be frivolous with taxpayers’ money. Therefore it is imperative that outcomes of public spending can be measured, and to achieve this end the works of art that combine to form culture must be assigned a value.
