Good for the artist and good for the customer. By being outraged, you’re only feeding the notoriety that makes the work, yes, work, more valuable to the buyer and seller alike. The world makes no sense whatsoever if you believe in intrinsic value and spend your time judging the actions of others. If you wouldn’t have bought this, cool - but I find that even less interesting than an invisible statue.
Except art is used as a tax vehicle. Then nonsensical valuations disproportionate to intrinsic characteristics exchanged between corporations and foundations makes a lot of sense.
It quite alters the respect to other genuine works of artists, but it is an art of itself. An artifact of our legalized societies, perhaps a comedy staring at us as much as we stare at its sale price.
Yes, if it really was about the artwork itself, then you wouldn't sell it because there is nothing to be sold in a way that can be captured by existing property law.
