£45m for a paintin...

**Phill** · 01-Mar-12, 13:44

....and a rude one at that!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17220446

OK, no 'public' money was used but lottery funds were.
Oh, and good old Dukey knocked £5m off the price (10% discount for cash mebbe).

Is it really worth £45 million to the 'nation'??

**Errogie** · 01-Mar-12, 16:06

He probably bought it originally because it reminded him of the ceilidhs in Dunrobin!

After all one of the ex wives installed an "opium room" in Carbisdale castle so the aristos were right up there when it came to decadence.

Let's see some more of their life stories and misdeeds recorded on the blank faces of the infamous "mannie" statue on Ben Bhraggie. Every year when I do the hill race I try to retain enough salivia to spit on it at the summit turning point to the surprise of the Gala Week attendants!

**Alrock** · 01-Mar-12, 18:43

Originally Posted by Phill

....and a rude one at that!

Is it really worth £45 million to the 'nation'??

Forget the rude aspect, that has no significance to the argument on value....

Is it worth £45,000,000.... No....

If they really wanted people to see this piccy in a museum then I'm sure for a couple of hundred quid they could have got a really good quality print of it... Looking at a distance in a museum you wouldn't be able to tell the difference...

Alternatively, if they are going to let people see it close up & need more detail than a print can give then why not commission a young struggling artist to create a near perfect reproduction of it?... & don't say... "It will never be the same"... The number of cases in the past (& probably still going on, undetected) where forgeries have been sold to museums & hung there for years fooling even the (so called) experts just goes to show that they can be just as good, if not better, since in the intervening 500 odd years I'm sure they have lost their original lustre, lets see them as the artist intended the day he painted them..