Status Updates From Belonging and Betrayal: How...

“Untitled collectors craved titled art. […] It gave them an acquired pedigree to stand in for the aristocratic family heritage they lacked. It made their fortunes more respectable. No matter how they had accumulated their money, no matter how many strikers their Pinkerton had bludgeoned to secure it, their paintings helped make them respectable by standards considerably older than American egalitarianism.”