As ultimate cultural status symbols go, Edvard Munch’s The Scream — or, one of them, anyway — would be hard to beat as a doodad to show off proudly to your friends and family. Someone will be doing that soon: the only privately owned Scream sold at auction yesterday at Sotheby’s in New York for $120 million to an anonymous buyer.
Look into an alternate universe in which you are ridiculously, obscenely wealthy. (Or perhaps you’re already there and have just been keeping quiet about it here.) You’re a person of taste, distinction, and sophistication: you’re not spending your money on pet funerals fit for pharaohs. You’re a collector of only the finest tchotchkes on the planet. So:
If you had millions (or billions) to blow, what ultimate cultural status symbol would you buy? Would you buy the Mona Lisa to hang over your fireplace? Would you snap up the Eiffel Tower and use it as a feature in your garden? Remember: Money is no object, and objections are no object. Not for sale? Everything is for sale to you.
Go shopping…
(If you have a suggestion for a QOTD, feel free to email me. Responses to this QOTD sent by email will be ignored; please post your responses here.)
