ART and AIDS

By Thomas

U2’s Bono kicked off the AIDS charity auction—which topped $38.7 million—last night with a rendition of “All You Need is Love.” A piece by the same name by Damien Hirst—A large plastic heart with dead butterflies stuck to it—sold for $2.2 million to a telephone bidder. Damien Hirst’s priciest work garnered $6.2 million “before fees,” according to Bloomberg.com. Now, Sotheby’s is undoubtedly a well-meaning auction house, but what are the “fees,” involved here? If this is a charity for AIDS victims in Africa, then why are fees involved? I’m sure their paltry 10% commission of the hammer price is appreciated by the dying Africans.

Charity auctions carry a purely positive connotation. Who would not want to be involved in a charity auction, and frankly, why would one not want to donate to such a thing. Naturally, if your auction house is Sotheby’s and this is an extremely well-publicized auction, you will see several celebrities there. Not only will Bono perform a Beatle’s tune, but actor Dennis Hopper, former tennis star John McEnroe, real estate mogul Aby Rosen and model Christy Turlington all show up. Following the auction there’s an after-party including KaiKai KiKi LLC CEO Takashi Murakami, entrepreneur Martha Stewart, models Helena Christensen and Liya Kebede, R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe, newscaster Brian Williams and actress Ziyi Zhang. Not only did Christy Turlington buy Francesco Clemente's ``Red Flower on Scorched Earth'' for $155,000, more than double the valuation of $70,000!!, but she happened to write a paper on Damien Hirst in college! Artists involved were some of the priciest in the business. Not only was Hirst well-represented, but Murakami’s “Red Flower Ball (3-D)” sold for $1.5 million, U.K. sculptor Antony Gormley’s piece went for $250,000 and Andreas Gursky “Pyongyang IV,” a photograph of a Korean festival sold for $1.4 million.

Art dealers bought up most of the pricier pieces and phone buyers bought up most of the rest. Hirst’s piece, “Where There’s a Will There’s a Way,” brought in more than a sixth of the proceeds. It was purchased by London’s White Cube Gallery, one of Hirst’s own dealers. Of course art adviser Thea Westreich stated that celebrity events can’t serve as a proxy for the health of the art market, “It's a sexy auction for Valentine's Day.” This may indicate that Damien Hirst and other artists don’t commonly fetch this extreme in prices. However, if dealers and mysterious “phone bidders,” bought up most of the pieces, what are we to expect, that these pieces were not worth what they were sold for? This would undoubtedly put the dealers out of business, the mysterious phone bidders in a position to relinquish their phones. Such an auction is brilliant for these artists. Not only is their work put out there as their own, when often such pieces are constructed by the “Hirst Studio,” or “Murakami[[ and others ]],” but receiving this kind of publicity and these kind of over-the-top prices on their works only makes their snob appeal/recognition/worth go up. The contention is not that art at this level is a Giffen good (goods that are in higher demand at higher prices). Instead, demand among the rich is heavily linked to recognition. High Art's worth so often is judged by author rather than by, well, worth. Why would an artist of Hirst’s caliber not want to hire his studio workers a few more hours to make such a piece for auction when it can only increase his popularity and appeal. Even better, "I'm a good person, I donate to charity, World!"

Celebrities get tremendous props simply for attending such events. If they, like Christy Turlington, actually come away with a piece, it makes big news. Not just among the higher-up community, but among the public. Martha Stewart looks much better than she did yesterday, simply because she is mentioned in articles discussing the (Red) Auction at Sotheby’s. Additionally, these people are buying art. Valuations were estimated to be much lower than the auction brought in, however, these artists commonly sell pieces for such prices. What better pairing for your 42^nd street townhouse apartment and your image than a Hirst cabinet with antiretroviral drugs stuck inside and an “I contributed to charity,” medal?

In a purely reasonable sense, altruism does not exist. Every individual acts on his or her preferences and maximizes utility according to those preferences. An unselfish act is just as selfish as a selfish one from a purely personal perspective. In other words, celebrities and top artists in the business have motivations for submitting to a charitable auction as I have mentioned, but also have internal motivations which reward them. Maybe they are doing good for horribly sick people in Africa. Maybe AIDS workers will get it through their heads that condom distribution doesn’t work and that more creative ways to prevent the almost inevitable spread of AIDS are necessary. Ultimately, events like this, which focus on a dire problem (AIDS in Africa), but which ignore such things as genocide in Darfur, may serve the wealthy artists and celebrities involved more than those in Africa.

Thanks go to Linda Sandler and Katya Kazakina.