High Cost Is Old News in Art World

Lazlo Beh states that “Art is not created with the intention that only the privileged, moneyed folk will be able to look at it and enjoy it” [“For Most, Van Gogh Show Out of Reach,” Letters, Dec. 27].

I am sorry, but throughout history that is precisely why art was created. In the past, wealthy patrons commissioned works and even retained artists on their payroll to decorate their homes and tombs, or as a feather-in-their-cap donation--with their names on it, of course--to some public or religious institution.

In this day and age when “ordinary folk” are accorded the right to enjoy these works, it is also, unfortunately, the ordinary folk who must pay for it.

DEBRA L. WILEY

Inglewood