Art note

We'll return to the Kovar scam soon. Right now, I would like to share an anecdote that warmed even my glaciated heart.

Not long ago, I was pretty much socially required to visit the Getty Museum during school hours -- which means the place was overrun with kids on field trips. When I popped in to see Van Gogh's Irises, I was amused to see a half-dozen uniformed third-graders lying on the carpet directly beneath it, as though they were watching teevee in the living room. They were busy drawing their own versions of the picture. Cutest damn thing you ever saw.

The work hanging just a few feet ahead of them once sold for the highest price ever recorded at auction (at the time) -- $53 million. Today, it might fetch as much as $80 million.

I could not help asking the teacher: "You think those kids have any idea how much that picture is worth?" She just laughed. Heck no.

What would Vincent have thought? He probably would opine that the art market had gone mad. But the reaction of those children would have made perfect sense to him.