On art, cost, and value

Mark Zurolo ’01MFA

View full image

Which one is not like the others? Eighty porcelain vases, produced in a factory in China, have been placed throughout the Yale Center for British Art for the Clare Twomey installation Made in China. Of the 80, 79 were decorated in the factory by workers who applied identical mass-produced floral decals. One of the vases, however, had been shipped to Royal Crown Derby, a high-end porcelain company in Britain, where it was hand-decorated with 18-karat gold. That single vase cost as much as the other 79 combined. The vases, part of an exhibit on British pottery, will be on view through December 3.