Personal Dork Assistant

Italian Master

And I thought I was a bigshot for plunking down a hundred bucks for some RAM and a USB flash drive the other day. The New York Metropolitan Museum just made their most expensive purchase ever, at least $45 million for a Madonna painting by Duccio di Buoninsegna from the early 14th century.

"The first slide in an art history 101 course is a Duccio," Mr. de Montebello said.

"He was one of the founders of Western art."

"He gave me the transparency, which sat on my desk until Philippe returned from vacation,'' Mr. Christiansen said, referring to Mr. Montebello. "He knew the painting was coming on the market, but I don't think he'd seen a picture of it. When I showed it to him, it took him about 30 seconds to say, 'We really have to have this.' "

I just think it's fascinating how someone in-the-know would be excited enough to spend millions of dollars within seconds of seeing it, when most of the Met's viewing public probably can't even pronounce "Duccio di Buoninsegna," much less understand his significance as an inspiring figure of the Italian Renaissance. I certainly admit that I have no knowledge of the guy, and I probably know more about Renaissance art than the average non-art-person. Looking forward to checking it out one of these days.