Venice is the perfect place for a phase of art to die. No other city on earth embraces entropy quite like this magical floating mall.

Works of art often last forever, or nearly so. But exhibitions themselves, especially gallery exhibitions, are like flowers; they bloom and then they die, then exist only as memories, or pressed in magazines and books.

Of course art world ethics are important. But museums are no purer than any other institution or business. Academics aren't necessarily more high-minded than gallerists.

Don't go to a museum with a destination. Museums are wormholes to other worlds. They are ecstasy machines.

The greatest work of art about New York? The question seems nebulous. The city's magic and majesty are distilled in the photographs of Alfred Stieglitz and Paul Strand.

Megacollectors suppose they can enter art history by spending astronomical amounts.