Bill Gates can't buy culture !

Just the other day I read about a " class " offered exclusively

    to the super-rich - naturally - on intelligent philanthropy: how to

    rid themselves of their burdensome wealth wisely if not profitably.

        Today I read that Microsoft chairman has just paid more than

     $30 million for Winslow Homer's American painting masterpiece " Lost

    on the Grand Banks ", a major seascape still left in private hands.

       Bill Gates can buy " priceless " paintings but he can't buy real

    culture. Any two bit psychologist can see through such mega-purchases

    of fine art. A narrowly focused " genius " like gates -or maybe just an

    " idiot savant "  Gates - probably sensed that he had failed to become

    truly " cultured " during his dizzying climb to the economic heights.

         The $30 million purchase only advertises his " poor soul ". He

    knows better than anybody else when contemplating himself honestly :

    " There is not much here ! " Even in his special field of computer

    technology, I'll bet that there are at least 100 undergraduates right

    now at MIT more gifted than he ever was. He was in truth one of the

    lucky pioneers . His likes were around in the early days of radio and

    TV.

        If Gates had a little more heart , he would realize that $30 million

    could help support hundreds of LIVING artists in the United States.

       He would not recognize a contemporary Winslow Homer !

       What can be more ridiculous than " possessing " a great work of

    art anyway ? Do you acquire the right to prevent the public from

    enjoying it ?  Do you ultimately make more money on it, money the

    artist himself never even imagined having ?

        How profoundly ironic : the world's most insensitive souls

    hoarding great works of exquisitely sensitive artists !

        Perhaps there is a portrait  of Bill Gates  hidden in some

    talented artist's attic, done in shades of Dorian Gray !