Page 28 - Unlikely Stories 2

VERONICA

this fellow when he was just plain John Isty, a Knightsbridge dealer in
bric-a-brac.
“Then I have a proposition, one which may at first strike you as
quite extraordinary. But please hear me out: if we can come to an
agreement, it will be to the benefit of all parties.”
Sir Payne’s septuagenarian eyebrows lifted, dragging along his
upper eyelids. He had not counted on venturing beyond the bounds
of the ordinary. “I shall certainly endeavor to give you my complete
attention,” he replied. “The art world is not my bailiwick, but I
understand an offer when I hear it.”
“Thank you, Sir Payne.” Jean d’Istaille took another sip of sherry
and gathered his thoughts. “First, a bit of background. The rest of
the world has changed immensely in the past thirty years, and the art
world is having to catch up—painfully. You may already have noticed
the sale prices for paintings going down at Christie’s. This is driven
largely by the loss of funding of museums in every country. As an
institution generating support from the population at large, the
museum, like the library, has in large part become a dinosaur. The
level of cultural literacy has slipped to near-barbarism in the civilized
world, thanks to television and computers.”
“Eh? I thought all that computer nonsense was supposed to
stimulate the little blighters to study more, not less.”
“Ah, there’s the rub. The decades of passive television were
followed by decades of interactive video games; both phenomena
reinforced the attention deficit syndrome from which a majority of
our citizens suffer, regardless of educational level. The practice of
actually going to a museum and contemplating a work of art is dying,
and it is happening at a time when financial pressures are the greatest.
The old guard, if I may call it that, Sir Payne, that used to place its
philanthropy in the service of museums like ours, is vanishing; the
new wealth is being hoarded or donated to environmental causes.”
“Now you mention it, I am aware of these new directions in
popular taste. I sometimes find it difficult to hold a decent
conversation with my own grandchildren.”
“Quite. Another trend you might not have noticed is licensed
merchandising. Any institution which holds trademarks or copyrights
has become increasingly dependent upon revenue from T-shirts,
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