Utz (2011)
Utz
“Whenever his share prices rose above a certain level, he siphoned off a sum of money to pay for yet another object: the calculation being that if, over the years, the cache in Geneva approached the quality, not necessarily the quantity, of the collection in Prague, he might once again be tempted to emigrate.
One year – I believe it was 1963 – the New York dealer, Dr Marius Frankfurter, made a special trip to Vichy to offer Utz a piece of porcelain that was quite outside his usual range: a model... known as ‘The Spaghetti Eater’, made not at Meissen, but at the CapodiMonte factory in Naples.
In the same baby blue bedroom, Dr Frankfurter unwrapped the object from its multiple layers of tissue-paper and set it on the commode, with the reverence of a priest exhibiting the Host. Utz could hardly help comparing its pearly glaze with the warted epidermis of the dealer. But that was life! The ugliest men loved the most beautiful things.
‘So?’ said Dr Frankfurter.
‘So,’ Utz pursed his lips.MoreLess
One year – I believe it was 1963 – the New York dealer, Dr Marius Frankfurter, made a special trip to Vichy to offer Utz a piece of porcelain that was quite outside his usual range: a model... known as ‘The Spaghetti Eater’, made not at Meissen, but at the CapodiMonte factory in Naples.
In the same baby blue bedroom, Dr Frankfurter unwrapped the object from its multiple layers of tissue-paper and set it on the commode, with the reverence of a priest exhibiting the Host. Utz could hardly help comparing its pearly glaze with the warted epidermis of the dealer. But that was life! The ugliest men loved the most beautiful things.
‘So?’ said Dr Frankfurter.
‘So,’ Utz pursed his lips.MoreLess
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