Between art and kitsch

That is a very lousy translation of the name of one of my favourite tv programmes. At Tussen kunst en kitsch (“Between art and kitsch”) people can get their old stuff valued. It’s so entertaining and recognizable seeing the excitement on peoples’ faces, hoping that the old painting they inherited from their great-great-grandfather is indeed worth millions…and that they finally have a good reason to get rid of the ugly thing and buy a new lounge suite. In tonight’s episode someone came up with a prototype of a Gerrit Rietveld chair. It was terribly worn out…and repainted. To be short: it looked like a scruffy old gardenchair, not like the masterpiece of an artist far ahead of his time. You could see the horror on the valuer’s face when asking the lady: “Why does this chair look so worn out, it’s a rare prototype! (For crying out loud woman!!)”. The woman replied: “We have four kids, what did you expect?”.