Nude, Green Leaves and Bust

A 1937 Picasso - Nude, Green Leaves and Bust - sold for $106.5 million at Christie's New York last Tuesday. This sets a world record price for any work of art at auction. The painting was purchased by an unidentified telephone bidder. To date, the record had been established not long ago when last February 3, Giacometti's Walking Man was sold for $104.3 million at Sotheby's in London. Despite falling markets, credit crunches and other catastrophes, 2010 has been an eye-opener, proving that art is still the greatest investment of all.

In this fraught and uncertain world that we live in many of us strive to retain our sanity while all those around us appear to be losing theirs. And while sticking to the subject of art and shooting prices I will venture to comment on the so-called works of art displayed in TVM during Bondiplus last week; works of art which, in this peculiar world of ours, may be called works of genius or works of a madman.

Yes, you guessed. The abstract daubs of Norman Lowell with their fantastically-astronomical prices stole the Bondiplus show last week along with his, Mr Lowell's, plans to shoot embryos into outer space to preserve the white race when the final catastrophe hits Planet Earth; something that the leader of Imperium Europa is convinced will happen either because of some Zionist plot or because of the poison of the Christian message, which is in direct opposition to his own rather stomach-churning Credo.

For a whole week people have been discussing the programme and while the majority said that they were laughing all the way through I am afraid that I must have had a sense of humour bypass as what was being expounded was simply too pernicious to elicit the slightest twitch. What we forget is that the written comments are the opinions of people with some sort of education and background; people like us, you might say, who read The Times religiously from cover to cover or cyber page by cyber page.

There have been lengthy discussions on Facebook and on the usual popular blogs and although the overwhelming majority has condemned every single outrageous utterance of this strange man with his peculiar dress-sense and cane, the occasional note of admiration did come through. Because I am writing in The Times I will say that it was words to the effect that the man had "guts" to say what he said except that the part of the anatomy referred to most of the time comes in pairs and speaks volumes about what is considered to be macho in this little rock of ours.

It is this grudging admiration from people that I would have thought know better that worries me so much. One must remember that Bondiplus is seen by the whole of Malta and not just us opinion writers and bloggers. Judgement is passed in the każini and the clubs and in the firework factories, giren and bars. Bondiplus is discussed over Cisk and te fit-tazza as assiduously as it is in the more fashionable wine bars and restaurants; if not more. What do these people think I wonder?

I hate casting aspersions, however, despite his claim to be aristocratic, Mr Lowell's most faithful followers are drawn from hoi polloi, men and even women who have no strong emotive cause to believe in as our centrist parties continue to clone. He probably uses the term aristocracy incorrectly, however, he would be very correct were he to use the term "new aristocracy" as, today, whenever anyone wants to alter mind-sets one uses the word "new" to window-dress the old.

What is controversial here was whether or not this man should have been given so much airtime and whether Lou Bondì's straight face and unusual mildness was merely giving Mr Lowell enough rope to hang himself with.

It appears that Mr Lowell has taken the Mayan prophesy about 2012 seriously and is planning a massive takeover in a couple of years' time. Imperium Europa will emerge from the ashes of a self-destructing civilisation to rule the world just as Mr Lowell's idol, Adolf Hitler, would have liked to had he been allowed by the "drunkard" Winston Churchill!

Considering that, by his own admission, Mr Lowell only paints when he's blotto I found it hard to believe that he was so derisive of the man who, like Hitler, was an artist, albeit a very capable and successful one, whose bravery and inspiration fought Nazism "on the beaches". But that is neither here nor there as every successive utterance by Mr Lowell was full of contradictions.

Can we uphold his intention to use abortion, infanticide and euthanasia to preserve the purity and health of the white race? Can we stomach the exile of our friends who have adopted children of a different race to some obscure island? His opinions of America and Israel puts Mahmud Ahmadinejad in a most relegated position while his sniggers and asides about women were enough to show that the man is chauvinistic and sexist.

Above all, it is his condemnation of Christianity that singles out the Jesuits in particular that rankles most of all. He refers to the "poison of the last 2000 years" that has tried its level best to instil in its followers a sense of right and wrong that Mr Lowell himself so sorely lacks.

Nazism also persecuted Christians besides the Jews. Because priests were Aryan, the ones who conformed were allowed to live but many died after unspeakable tortures. The fundamental Christian belief is diametrically opposed to Mr Lowell's and, therefore, like oil and water, they can never mix let alone coexist. So, before you are prepared to sell your soul, even for a price comparable to that of the Picasso, think, not twice, not 10 times but 1,700 and seven times for what we see through a glass darkly is but the shadow of the beast with seven heads that shall, if let loose, destroy and devour us all.