Art and false notions of prized possessions

British government plans to cut taxes for the rich. The upcoming Olympic Games are going to cost billions of pounds and the National Galleries of England & Scotland. And just recently, the authorities had bought a single work of art from the Duke of Sutherland for £45 million ( Rs. 3,600 million) with added money from the government and patrons. The motive was to ‘save the painting for the nation’.

The Duke of Sutherland, although richer through the sale, has received applause for resisting the temptation of selling it on the open market. It is said, he patriotically sacrificed twice or perhaps more of that sum through this particular sale.

Renowned columnist, author and screenplay writer based in London, Farrukh Dhondy, while pointing out how the country is almost bust, yet sharp ironies beset its impending bankruptcy, makes the following observations about the work, Titian’s ‘Diana and Callisto’.

• It’s acknowledged as one of the great works of the Renaissance and one of a pair, its twin being Titian’s Diana and Actaeon. Together they have fetched £95 million and have been valued at three times that price — hence the praise for the Duke’s patriotic sacrifice.
  
  
• The paintings are not in any sense part of Britain’s heritage. Titian was born Tiziano Vecelli in the state of Venice and his paintings were commissioned mostly by the Italian church and nobility. In later years, he was patronized by Phillip II of Spain who married Queen Mary of England, but Titian’s works didn’t come to Britain through such an alliance, though the Diana paintings were commissioned for the Escorial in Madrid. Classical and Renaissance artifacts were acquired by the aristocracy of Europe through the ages and changed hands through coercion or commerce.
  
  
• Even so, I would agree that Titian’s Diana and Callisto is in the top rank of civilization’s artifacts and though judgment of a painting is ultimately in the eye of the beholder, few would equate a Titian or a Tintoretto with the efforts of, say, a contemporary Indian artist who illustrates horses in a faux-modern style.