June 18, 2006

Does this painting make me look fat?

Pick up the paper, feel queasy. Billionaire buys a Klimt for $135 million. Nestle, meanwhile, pays $600 million for Jenny Craig.

success.jpg Klimt190.jpg link.lewinsky.jpg
Jenny Craig model; Museum Associates/Agence France-Presse - Getty Image

OK, OK, Jenny dumped Monica years ago. Sorry. (It's Kirstie Alley now, they tell me.) And the Klimt was purchased from legitimate heirs, not looters. (But they had to sue the looters to get it back.)

Will you sleep better at night knowing that a Swiss industrial food corp--the same outfit that airdrops formula to African villages and bottled tap water to Bellevue minimarts--now intends to profit even more from our collective gluttony? The official doublespeak is Orwellian, Nestle talking about its "commitment to nutrition, health and wellness."

Do you feel gratified that the surviving niece who inherited a painting commissioned by her uncle gets an obscenely huge bundle? Or still vaguely queasy?

Posted by Ronald Holden at June 18, 2006 9:30 PM
Comments

That is one portrait that makes me ver-KLIMPT! I could not sleep at night with it in my room.

Posted by: Trisha Nerney at June 19, 2006 8:42 AM