A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS. MAYBE MORE.

Blog number 400 **** 28 July, 2010

"Pawn Stars" is a television reality show about a pawn shop and the shtick is that people bring in objects to sell or pawn. The owners talk about the objects, explaining the history if they know of it, and if not, experts are brought in to do that chore. I find the show entertaining and sometimes informative.

Last week someone brought in a bar of gold about eight inches in length and about an inch and a quarter in diameter. The owner of the pawn shop said it was pretty obviously pure gold and that it was worth about twelve thousand dollars. However, he noticed what appeared to be remnants of coral on the underside and said that it might be from sunken treasure and if it was, then it would be worth twenty four thousand dollars - twice as much. The expert that was brought in confirmed that it was indeed sunken treasure and it was worth about twenty four thousand dollars as such.

I pondered long and hard on this aspect of the history of an object being worth, in and of itself, twelve thousand dollars. The history of an object was worth exactly the same amount as the object itself. Isn't that odd? What would that history bring to the owner of the bar of gold? "Oh, look," he could say, "this was once sunken treasure."

HE didn't find it. The fact that he owns it only means he had enough money to buy it and nothing more. Or am I missing something?

In a college art class once, we students were shown a book of "famous" paintings, and one was a canvas painted white. A white canvas painted white, artistically worth reproduction in an art book. Seems to me that painting could have been described just as well in words as it was presented as a painting.

"This artist painted a painting of pure white. Here's what it looks like." Oh! Wow! Beautiful!

I have often thought it a bit crazy that the author of a painting or a book or a carving or a sculpture is what makes those things valuable, and the object itself is merely the vehicle that brings the artist's name to the forefront. No famous name, no big money. Forget the art, that doesn't seem to matter, money wise. It's who did it that counts the most, or, as in this bar of gold, its history.

It's not so much that we are illogical. It's more that we are nuts.