So we all find consent in that what is popularly referred to as Chinese shops is not culture. We are less certain whether football or soccer and the many ways in which it is practiced, viewed or just commented, can be regarded as culture. Fortunately, no one raises doubts on the indeed cultural value of a collection of 85 works of Joan Miró.
Christie's in London appropriately opted to cancel the auction of those works, albeit less than 3 hours from its commencement, as it would be unable to guarantee an undisputed passage of title to successful bidders from the vendor, in this case a Portuguese government agency which took ownership of the collection through the nationalization of the BPN bank.
Nearly simultaneously, back in Portugal, an opening hammer does sound to announce the start of another bidding run amongst politicians wherein all the nearly childish confrontation between dreams and reality could have possibly inspired Joan Miró for another unique piece of surrealism, leaving the general public to make its own interpretation of the real meaning of it all.
BPN was nationalised by the Portuguese Government in the then still awake of a world wide financial crises and whereas banks were facing collapse in many countries, BPN's exposure was not vested in imprudent derivatives investment decisions, but simply in a systematic carrying on of fraudulent and criminal practices to finance the free-flowing of its adminstation. Whereas in Portugal it has not been too uncommon that legal entities were formed with a Board of Adminstrators including several former members of government along with all the legally required estatutes and licenses, the rather big difference for this BPN is the size of a still estimated suffocating gap of nearly € 5 billion, its rushed nationalisation has left the Portuguese audience to gaze at.
So while that art collection was kept in storage, large parts of the Portuguese population gradually came to be confronted with having to dispose of their public and private material and immaterial treasures in order to substantiate the imposed austerity measures to - inter alia - pay for the BPN gap.
I can understand that genuine art lovers, and especially those without money, feel devastated with the thought of an impressive collection dissappearing beyond territorial horizons forever. I am less impressed with the surrealism of in particular opposition members of parliament suddenly climbing on their pedestal to cry out disgrace for the cold financial view the government shows towards culture, in view of the potential Miró's work would have for foreign visitors, somehow excluding the Portuguese population themselves from the outset. It is a poor and shameful Pontius Pilatus like attempt for those who did not manage to embed a nation's rich and so undervalued culture amongst the nation itself and the role it once had worldwide.
Yes, an investment of money, time, prospect, vision in what nearly any country would primarily vest within a government's budget and political initiative to promote "culture", tends to quickly fall on a priority ladder in times of austerity. The same happens at any person's home. Art-and-nearly-everything-else-critic Miguel Sousa Tavares made a valid point in reminding people of the enormous amount of public and private time and money which was spent surrounding the pre-historic art sites in Portugal's Côa Valley. And that art is immovable.
I would take one step further, in that any museum which would come to hold onto the Miró collection in Portugal would seriously risk becoming a permanent place of exhibiting the very symbols of entangling private and public mismanagement of the early 21st century and that is not something anyone is waiting for at this point.
With that being said, I see an opportunity for a modern forward looking government in search of sketching a vision, to attribute the proceeds of the auction now scheduled in June, to some fiscal incentive - however symbolic - in order for any Portuguese to spend some time and/or money to create or buy into forms of Portuguese originated art, whether it is a young artist's painting or some educational roadshow or project for children. Then we really are cultivating.
No comments:
Post a Comment