CBC News: Sale of Monet painting kicks off auction season

Pre-auction estimates put the value of a Monet painting called "London, the Parliament", at $12 - $18 million. For that price, you can buy a fabulous and extensive collection of Canadian and international art. Look, I'm a painter, and I want people to buy paintings, but no painting is worth squillions of dollars. What people will be buying at this auction is that peculiar product called history. I remember years ago when the National Gallery bought a big Barney Newman painting, causing loud debate in the media. People were concerned with the simplicity of this large painting (it spawned plenty of remarks in the 'my 2 year old could do this' vein). To me, the purchase deserved criticism, but for a different reason. The painting was a fine example of Newman's work - but no painting, in my estimation was worth forking out multiple millions for. That purchase told me that the National was way too late. They missed the boat. They should have been buying Newmans when he was kicking. We have the same problem here in Toronto with the Art Gallery of Ontario. They are spending gazillions on a face-lift, but at the same time, they have failed to build an appropriate collection of works by the Ontario artists of our time. Who cares what the building looks like if the collection is limp. I'm sick of seeing so-called blockbuster exhibitions of 19th century painting. Ho hum.