Value vs Price

Julian Burnside (as quoted in AbaF's magazine 'Connect' - Winter 2009) writes that '... part of the reason [that support for the arts is haphazard in at least Australia] is that we don't appreciate the value of art; we concentrate instead on the price of it.'

Then later...

'Let us suppose that a collector or a gallery acquired the 'Mona Lisa' or Monet's 'Waterlillies' and said, 'Well these belong to me now and I'm going to lock them away and no-one will ever see them again.' Wouldn't we think that we had been wrongly deprived of something which in a sense belongs to all of us? And what if the new owner said, 'I'm going to destroy them, to demonstrate my great wealth.' We would be outraged...'