Mishmash Musings

I just read an article that says the only known painting of author Jane Austen will be sold at a Christie’s auction next month. The owner is a six-generation descendant of Austen, and he hopes to get between $400,000 and $800,000 for the painting.

However, the article goes on to say that the authenticity of the subject in the painting is disputed by scholars. Some experts are convinced that the clothing worn by the young woman in the painting is not consistent with what someone of Jane Austen’s time period would have worn. Austen’s descendant, of course, says that’s a weak argument at best and has no doubt that it’s Jane in the picture.

Frankly, even if it is the real thing, I can’t understand why anyone would want to pay that much money for it. Then again, I can’t understand why anyone would pay millions for a Jackson Pollack painting that looks like it was done by a 5-year-old, so I guess I’m just out of touch with the art world.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 24th, 2007 at 6:30 am and is filed under Current Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.