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"If I read that an art collector has paid $3 million for a Damien Hirst \u201CSpot Painting,\u201D I will probably roll my eyes and turn the page. If read for the three-millionth time that an art critic thinks Damien Hirst is overrated, I will probably do the same thing.That\u2019s because the struggle to prove superior taste has been a sort of high-brow pissing match since ancient Greece. And, to this day, it\u2019s a cat\u2019s game: Critics bank on their cultural capital \u2014 their fluency in the language of art \u2014 to undermine the dominance of wealthy philistines, who, in turn, demonstrate their good taste by buying status symbols, like Damien Hirst paintings. The circle goes round and round and, in the end, your dad\u2019s occupation is probably as strong a predictor of taste as any.Nonetheless, the debate rages on, most recently in this Sunday\u2019s New York Times, which asked readers to weigh in on the question, \u201CWhat is that art worth?\u201D Counterintuitive auction results fuel many of the misgivings people have about the reliability of the art market, like the fact that Jeff Koons\u2019s prices trounce those of Diego Velazquez, or that Andy Warhol\u2019s record is about the same as Peter Paul Rubens\u2019.The Times\u2019 query on art\u2019s monetary worth is impossible to answer, of course. But, as galleries and auction houses prepare for New York\u2019s \u201COld Masters Week,\u201D January 26-February 3, it seems like a good time to ponder the factors that make art valuable today. Is it whose names we will remember 100 years from now? Or is historical relevance no longer relevant when it comes to the market?To demonstrate just how subjective these questions of taste can be, we present a slideshow of Old Master works about to hit the auction block alongside 10 contemporary counterparts that went for the same price. Which is worth more, Warhol\u2019s riff on Botticelli or the actual Botticelli? Basquiat or Bronzino? Judge for yourself.To see our side-by-side comparison of contemporary art with classic art that you could buy for the same price, click on the slideshow."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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