hundreds...and millions

thanks to my friend who loans me favorite sections of the Oregonian, i now know the following: this month marks what would have been poet william stafford's 100th birthday.  to celebrate, OPB is featuring him on oregon art beat (tomorrow, thursday january 16th on channel 10 at 8:00 pm if you're local) AND the world's most expensive painting has just been purchased for $142.4 million dollars.  yes, art history enthusiasts, you read that correctly.  along with information on the auction and artist, the column also listed several other things you could do with $142.4 million dollars (repeating that here for emphasis).  drumroll please...you could have one painting OR you could purchase a tsunami safety and warning system for the entire country of indonesia.  hmm. that's well beyond the worth of even the mona lisa.  the debate seems to be centering on whether people like the painting or not (opinion is great as long as intelligence reigns; i like to teach my art students to use objective principles of art and design in their critiques) but my question, along with aesthetics, is more along the lines of how value is attached to pieces of art and if we have an ethical and moral responsibility when it comes to sums of money that could make sizeable dents in world hunger?  i'll let you decide...and feel free to weigh in here on what you think.  meanwhile, happy birthday to william stafford.  have any poems in his honor?