What is extreme wealth? In Roman times, Petronius depicts in his
Satyricon
the fictitious orgiastic feasts of Trimalcion, an extremely wealthy freed slave who swallows himself with his guests, in a ceremonial feast, a succession of extraordinary dishes, exceptional meats, Refined appetizers, mountains of poultry, pork, cold meats of all kinds as well as cascading pastries. Some two millennia later, here is a petition circulating online with a wish, to say the least, that the richest man in the world take possession of the most famous painting in the world. And eat it. An agape of excess, as sumptuous as it is incongruous, which would not have denoted in the ancient Latin novel.
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The text designates the American billionaire Jeff Bezos, founder and president of Amazon. As for the work, it is neither more nor less of the inestimable
Mona Lisa from
which, let us remember, the Louvre does not intend to part with. Whatever. The petition already signed by nearly 7,000 people on the change.org platform does not address the underlying reasons that may have motivated this absurd request. In the absence of a manifesto on the ephemeral character of art, of a politico-financial essay on the obscene accumulation of wealth, of a mystical poem on the mysteries of the Eucharist or, again, of a reflection on what such a gesture could say in terms of cultural consumption, only a laconic message allows us to perceive the substance of theidea defended by the petition.
"Nobody ate
Mona Lisa
and we believe that Jeff Bezos must take a stand on this subject and make this happen, ”she
says soberly.
Buy it, but what for?
Put online last year by a user identified as Kane Powell, it is only in recent days that the petition, entitled
"We want Jeff Bezos to buy and eat the Mona Lisa"
(
“We want Jeff Bezos to buy and eat the Mona Lisa”
) has grown in popularity. The sudden take off of this obscure claim could be linked to recent announcements about Jeff Bezos' space flight aboard a capsule from his company Blue Origin, as well as revelations from Pro Publica's investigation into the tax returns of several American billionaires, including the boss of Amazon. Two very different news but which closely affect the very fortune of this American entrepreneur, as fond of space as ofTax optimization.
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At the head of an estimated wealth of 193.5 billion dollars, according to
Forbes
, thanks to his shares of Amazon, there is indeed very little that Jeff Bezos could not afford.
So why not the Mona Lisa, after all?
The portrait completed in 1518 by the Italian Renaissance master was valued at $ 100 million in the 1960s, or nearly $ 880 million today, taking inflation into account.
An amount twice as high as the most expensive artwork put under the hammer, the
Salvator Mundi
-
also attributed to Leonardo - sold 450 million dollars in 2019. Its iconic status, which has grown for more than 50 years, could have further multiplied its value, as Stéphane Distinguin had argued last year, in a column published by
Usbek & Rica
. According to the French entrepreneur,
La Joconde is
worth at least $ 50 billion today.
"For the richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, 50 billion is only a small third of his fortune, barely more than the amount paid to his wife in the course of his recent divorce
,
" he
wrote. he then, in March 2020, with the idea of selling the painting to pay off part of the French debt.
“Why not rename our work Mona Lisa del Giocondo-Bezos?”
.
If buying the Mona Lisa thus seems to be within reach of the billionaire and future astronaut, the question of its ingestion - cooked or dry, that is to say in oil - in turn presents dizzying questions. Jeff Bezos, giving in to the petition, could he stage this luxury consumption, like a modern-day Sardanapalus? If the Louvre and the billionaire remain silent for the moment on this affair of good or bad taste, the petition has aroused new enthusiastic support in recent days on the change.org platform, on which there are many comments full of anticipation. :
"This is the most important petition of modern times"
,
"If not now, when?" If not him, who? ”
,
“No more eating the rich. It's time for the rich to eat! ”.
We can bet that the wish shared by the more than 7000 signatories threatens to collapse and that the Amazon giant will eat its hat faster about its space travel rather than swallow such a snake, she must have been called Mona Lisa.
