Today is Palm Sunday... and listening to Holy Mass at home... I always listen to the Mass on Sundays... at home...That's the tradition... First thing in the morning...Right out of bed... I play the Mass... my wife wakes up in the chants...
Ross was always enjoyed the Art Gallery... But he had his way of enjoying his tour... He had a quick walk and checked all the exhibits... Chose one painting or an statue and sat in front of that CHOSEN one for 15 maybe 20 even 30 minutes and mused and observed and his face went agonizingly serious... What he was looking at... I don;t know... What he was thinking... was his private possession... What he scrutinized... was absolutely his... I did not prey... I did not ask questions... I just left him to his reveries-thoughts-musings-quarrels... and I knew that he will sort things out eventually... After all he was the "mathematician without numbers..."
... And one day, after our "tour" of the Gallery... at happy hour and after two drinks... he said; "You never asked what I do in front of the paintings-statues... sitting there by myself...!"
"I knew that at the right time... at the appropriate moment... you will open up... I waited for that..."
"I
remember," he said... "my mother taking us to the Musee des
Beaux-Arts... in Montreal... My brother and I and my mother... I sat
in front of a Madonna painting... and was enchanted by her... My
mother and brother strolled away without noticing that I was still
seating there and they "lost" me there... I was oblivious of time and space... and eventually they found me again... My mother did not yell... She was as pretty as the Madonna..."
I just listened and did not interrupt his memories... Apparently every time he remembered that incident from way back... when he sat in front of another painting in the Art Gallery...
Ross was enchanted with both... I remember him sitting at the entrance and looking at the "fuzzy ball"... That was the name Ross to the colourful sculptor...
***
Remembering Ross...
Browsing the news I noticed Michelangelo's Madonna going into display again... after 50 years...
That was just a coincidence, but it made me happy too...
Ross was a good chaplain... and a good human being... If it was left to him... we would not have any wars... and we will ALL live in PEACE...
Michelangelo's Madonna del Silenzio dates from 1538
***
Ross was
always annoyed when an art piece was auctioned/sold for exorbitant
sums... He always repeated..."What about the poor and the
famished and the downtrodden...?"
I
never responded to him... I new it was a rhetorical outburst
in face of so much waste...
A US silver dollar worth more than $10m has gone on display in London. But what makes this coin the most valuable in the world?
It measures 4cm (1.6in) across and would make $12 if sold for scrap silver today, but the "Amon Carter" Flowing Hair Silver Dollar is a record-breaker. It was bought by a private collector in 2013 for $10m (about £7m).
The astonishing price-tag is thanks to it ticking three all-important boxes - rarity, condition and cultural value. But perhaps the greatest selling point is who handled it.
|
He had few basic facts...
1.
The sum, in this case $10 million, can be used for humanitarian
needs... providing water... to Flint, Michigan or some African
country...
2.
He was absolutely furious when the buyer was a "private
collector..." Ross wanted the public to have it... Ross wanted
rare objects to be placed in public museums where everyone can see...
and enjoy...
3.
Rarity... just like scarcity of resources... is just a pretext for
more greed and more profit...
Ross
wanted everyone to share... "Sharing is human, and private
ownership is the animal instinct in us...," he insisted...
4.
If it has any "cultural value" then it surely has to be
shared with the public and not stashed privately... in some safe or
maybe in a basement... for a "private collector" to brag...
Ross was thoughtful and very reasonable... that was yet another reason that I shared drinks with him...
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.