A SIGN OF HOPE FOR LIVING ARTISTS

Benefits Supervisor Sleeping by Lucian Freud

I appreciate the realism of this painting by British painter Lucian Freud, the grandson of Sigmund Freud. The tattered couch, the mundane haircut, and the strange pose conjure a myriad of emotions of why our society only celebrates humans and human bodies of few varieties.

I especially like the title, Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, which is much more succinct than what I would have called it, which would be something like Portrait of the Buck Nekkid Zaftig Woman Who Handles the Company's Compliance with Medicare and Cobra While Taking A Siesta on a Dog Urine-Stained Sofa Bed Purchased at a Garage Sale, Shortly Before Making A Joking Reference to the Line from Titanic About Wanting To Be Drawn Like One of My French Girls.

In my most generous layman's opinion, this painting should be worth $10,000.

It turns out that my estimate was off by $33,630,000.00. In fact, this painting now holds the world record for the highest price paid for art by a living artist.

(Side note: the benefits supervisor made about $40 a day posing for Freud.)

Now is the time for you art majors to explain the discrepancy between my 10K assessment and the actual $33.64 million selling price.

--Junichi