By BarbaraAnne:

While we worship the art that is sold at auctions, fantasize wearing diamonds in our mind’s vacation, luxury establishments hide another reality: how they treat their workers. Without people to move priceless art from place to place, there would be no glittering world. Pieces are heavy, or have to be moved with such care, the skill involved takes years to learn.

So we find Sotheby’s Auction House in a dispute with its art handlers, who belong to a union. As recession looms over the world, riots ensue in London, Greece is on the verge of collapse, Germany is furious it has to bail everyone out, and America… well.

The company made $680 million last year. The CEO gave himself a 125% raise, while asking for over 100 concessions from IBT 814, the Art Handlers Union. Now, Sotheby’s has locked union workers out and hired the desperately unemployed, who will work for less. It is just another nail in the coffin of the middle class. Craving escape, we are vulnerable — we, who want beauty to shut out the wasteland of predators. How easy is it to give up empathy for a glance at Monet?

We can’t do it. We must touch the people, who touch the art.

Filed under: Angst