Baffling Price of the Week
February 18 2011
Picture: Sotheby's
This self-portrait by Thomas Struth was offered at Sotheby's earlier this week. It shows Struth looking at Durer's self-portrait in the Alte Pinakothek. The photo being sold was one of a run of ten.
There was some great blurb in the catalogue:
There are many ways to interpret these museum pictures—as an exploration of the relationship between painting and photography, as critical commentary on the invasion of cultural institutions by mass tourism, or even as a twist on appropriation art. But above all, they are a meditation on the function of centuries-old art in a secular world and how contemporary audiences engage with these masterpieces as a means of interacing [sic (I think)] with history.
It made £421,250.
And because I can't resist being a berk, here is my own, which you can have for free.
