Vanity lies in the eyes of the believer

Tyeb Mehta’s Durga Mahisasura Mardini selling for Rs 20.49 crore and Amrita Sher-Gil’s Little Girl in Blue fetching Rs 18.69 crore at Sotheby’s first auction in India on Thursday was not surprising — rare and exquisite creations by great artists regularly tempt discerning aficionados to splurge.

But forking out an 1,800% mark-up for something purely on the basis of an assumed excellence is more about tapping credulity than sophistication. Gathered fashion “influencers” who raved about the quality and design of a cheap US shoe brand that pranked them last month in Los Angeles by making up an Italian sounding approximation of its name and pretending their regular shoes were the handiwork of that “new designer” highlighted the pitfalls of blind belief in brands.

That these ‘experts’ eagerly bought cheap shoes at designer prices can be deemed a manifestation of the ‘aspiration inflation’ that currently prompts people with high ambition but inadequate preparation to metaphorically punch above their weight.


It is obviously alarmingly easy to perceive brilliance and value if the mind is willing and knowledge is wanting. Clearly, human nature has not changed much since Hans Christian Andersen wrote The Emperor’s New Clothes in 1837, that cautionary tale of vainglory and gullibility that even has an 11th-century Indian equivalent.