Have you ever been baffled by the amount of money that art works fetch at auctions? Since last week Sunday, Sotheby’s has recorded almost 100 million US dollars worth of sales for Asian art pieces.

Who decides this value and should it be related to value in economy as a whole, rather than simply a question of supply and demand?

Most of the production and consumption of art works are sealed off behind closed doors. Unless one knows about the auction world, one would easily miss the news.

There should be more discussion around the use and exchange value of art. What is the value of art – to show off, to appreciate, to marvel in all its glory, as a pursuit of academic endeavour, or purely as an investment for the future?

Whatever the motives, I still cannot understand why people are prepared to pay huge prices for art?

Maybe it’s the aesthetic value – where one can become trapped in the spell of brush strokes and paint. Maybe it’s the brand value – where branded artists come together with branded galleries then go into branded museums. I recently visited the Prado Museum in Madrid which stands as a huge testament to that idea.

I would be the first to admit that I hold a particular cynical view as no matter how hard I search for an answer, I still cannot determine who decides value?

There are many subjective implications in the value of art. For example if someone has the money to spend then they can go around the galleries with inflated status as the art scene wants those pound notes. We should do more to underline the questions being asked rather than just focusing on the subjective process in which we should all know about.

The use of art is what creates the propaganda. Art is the practice of making value on everything else.

The alternative is to build a globalised network of students who make the new world instead of trying to be another cog in the wheel. If artists are against the monetary value of exchange rate in art, then why don’t artists put the artistic value back in art?

Artists themselves need to learn to attach value to their art and be confident with it as we all like to admire our own reflections.