Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Don Keelan, a certified public accountant and resident of Arlington. The piece first appeared in the Bennington Banner.
There are times that I believe we in Vermont could really advance our economic standing if only we ceased thinking in small terms. Just because our state is quite small — geographically as well as in population, ranked 48th or so — is no reason our quests for bigger and larger things should be limited. Three such areas would be art, salaries and housing.
Those who are engaged in creating or selling works of art in Vermont represent a fairly large segment of the state’s economy. It would seem there is at least one art gallery in every Vermont village, town or city. In some cases there might even be a half dozen or more. The common thread among them is that the artworks being offered for sale are priced between the low hundreds to the low thousands of dollars — not asking enough, according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal.
The press reported recently that the late Edvard Munch’s painting “The Scream” sold for $119.5 million at a Sotheby’s auction. “The Scream” now joins an exclusive club — Picasso’s “Boy with Pipe,” $104 million; Giacometti’s “Walking Man I,” $104.3 million; and another Picasso, “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust,” sold for $106.5 million.
The April 29 New York Times noted that Rothko’s “Orange, Red & Yellow” might sell at auction between $35 million and $45 million along with a Warhol (“Double Elvis”) in the range of $30 million-$50 million. Is there a dollar limit?
If you are not into art, then think bigger when it comes to what it is you can be paid in salary for your services. Thirty, 40, 50 or even a hundred thousand dollars a year is just not commensurate with what is taking place in some areas.
Here is a sampling according to CNN Money: in 2010, Les Moonves’ (CBS) salary was $56.9 million, Phillipe Dauman (Viacom) topped out at $84.5 million, Ray Irans (Occidental Petroleum) was a bit less at $76.1 million. Way down the salary scale were John Lundgrew (Black & Decker) at $32.6 million and Richard Brauken (HCA) a low $29 million. When it comes to what we think our services are worth, in Vermont, we are just not embracing the concept of largeness.
However, it is in the area of our home sales that I believe we really are not focusing on the “big picture” compared with other parts of the country.
Candy Spelling (Aaron Spelling’s widow) sold her 123-room house for $85 million, which is down from the $150 million asking price, to the 22-year-old daughter of Bernie Ecclestone of Formula One fame.”
It could be that the New York Times is trying to call our attention to the problem with our way of thinking when it comes to pricing our homes. In the same edition as noted above, the paper reported on a recent sale in Los Angeles.
Candy Spelling (Aaron Spelling’s widow) sold her 123-room house for $85 million, which is down from the $150 million asking price, to the 22-year-old daughter of Bernie Ecclestone of Formula One fame. Ms. Ecclestone wanted some geographical balance to her housing needs. Halfway around the world is Ms. Ecclestone’s 20,000-square-foot, $87 million London residence.
Ms. Ecclestone did herself well by holding off to buy Spelling’s 56,000-square-foot home. She could have been saddled with David Saperstein’s $125 million Los Angeles estate, which she initially looked into.
Closer to home, if that is the right phase, Sanford Weill’s New York’s Central Park location home recently sold for $88 million. As with the Spelling castle, this piece of NYC went to the daughter of a Russian billionaire, who has his own $100 million residence in Palm Beach, Fla., according to the New York Times.
Now that I’ve had time to reflect maybe thinking small is not so bad after all. What in the world would I do with a 56,000-square foot house that can also accommodate parking for 100 cars? I would definitely require a GPS device to find my way around the estate. Furthermore, I don’t know an ample number of folks to fully utilize the available parking.
And insofar as art collection, I’m perfectly happy with my Norman Rockwell and Winslow Homer prints. For those who pay millions of dollars at auction for artworks, I’m sure their purchases are not hanging on their living room walls.
There may be a world outside Vermont that pays tens of millions for salaries, art and home purchases but does it come with peace and tranquility?
