European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 20, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns the stars and stripes monday april 20, 1987 Carl Rowan preaching abstinence just won t prevent aids it has been to n i frilly obvious since Adam Mei eve in the Garden of Eden thai sex is an almost irresistible temptation Tor Normal human beings. It has been tragically obvious in recent Days thai sex misused or indulged in irresponsibly can be an extremely destructive Force the Rev. Jim Bakker has ton his pal ministry and he and his family weep in shame because of a yielding o lust seven years ago. The Security of this nation was and is seriously imperilled because marines in the . Embassy in Moscow allegedly gave the soviets Access to Many of America s most vital secrets in Exchange for be with women agents of the Kab. Movie Siar Rock Hudson and pianist liberate let their sexual urge drag them into the deadly grip of the new terror dil Case aids if people with towering reputations huge for tune and their lives to lose cannot resist the magnetic Force of sex what sense does it make to pre tend that grave National problems can be solved if we Only preach an old morality just say no at a meeting of the family health Council of Western Pennsylvania i listened to doctors Public health officials welfare Counselor and Law enforce Merit officials talk about How religious passions political ideologies and racial hostilities Are making it almost impossible for hem to grapple with the most grievous social problems. I know that these negative forces a re at work nationwide. William f. Buckley or. Some 20,000 americans already have died of aids and the projection is that by 1991 some 160,000 More will have died meaning aids Wilt have taken three limes As Many lives As did the Vietnam War. One medical expert Lay that the entire world will soon face the greatest Public health problem anyone alive has Ever known aids. More than a million teen age girls Are getting pregnant out of Wedlock each year and half of them Are delivering babies compounding what already is a colossal social and budgetary crisis in America. Still in the face of these grim real world facts this society is being barraged by head in the Sand nonsense by people who Don t want sex Educa Tion classes birth control clinics anti aids instruction in the schools condoms advertised or contraceptive devices dispensed conservative Phyllis Schlafly says on lbs s face the nation the Public schools have no right to Leach children anything except abstinence from sexual activity until they get  another woman argues that no married woman should engage in sexual Intercourse except with the purpose of producing a child thus she argues when a wife reaches menopause sex in that marriage should end. Those two absurd views illustrate the terrible atmosphere within which surgeon general c. Everett Koop and other medical education and welfare official must try to do Good and sane work these Days Koop has called for aggressive sex education in the schools and condom ads on television As a Means to combat aids he has expressed his opposition to abortion but Laid on face the nation that any woman who is pregnant and whose blood tests positive for the aids virus is entitled to the option of abortion counselling if she so desires a Reagan administration that does t want o offend people like Schlafly clings to the patently absurd pretence that people can be preached Oul of engaging in sex thus it is trying to muzzle Koop preaching morality i endorse nut it is Lime for ibis nation to go far beyond that. Racial passions have produced some bizarre twists in Black communities where teen age girls Are especially vulnerable to pregnancy and where there Are disproportionately High numbers of aids victims. Some misguided souls Are arguing that White folks want to put birth control climes in Black schools just to hold Down the Black Popula tion.1 others have fastened onto the notion trial such clinics encourage youngsters to engage in Cas Ual sex. No one s religious Dogma or social quirks ought to stand in the Way of America s taking practical Steps to combat the Scourge of aids or to consider in something other than dream world rhetoric the Dis Maying problem of millions of children having babies. To North Amulet Sytz lilt museums being priced out of the Art Market concerning the Sale of Van Gogh s the sunflowers for $40 Mil lion a few observations i. It is quite right that the Art world As it designates itself in the headlines is shocked by the transaction but there is a dirty link secret Here that is the source of some gratification but wait a moment on that one. The most specific example of the Art world s Shock was the statement made by Philippe de Monte Bello director of the metropolitan museum of Art. He gave the loudest whistle indeed it had a Little of the sound of a death rattle. I feel like a Fossil awakened in an other Era. The commission alone paid to Christie s exceeds the metropolitan s total Art Purchase funds for a year. Therefore i feet so removed from this phenomenon i can Only watch in  the economic event has this meaning that Al the Price level for the masters suggested by the Van Gogh Sale museums Are out of business. 2. It is amusing to apply to Art the economic techniques practice most recently by the Hunt Brothers when in 1977, they attempted to Corner the Silver Market. The technique is As old As macroeconomics buy up the controlling sup ply of any goods and you control its effective Price. Open did it with Oil until open fell apart and the hum Brothers had Silver Selling for $48 an ounce. Now imagine a situation in which say a japanese Cartel decided to Corner the Market in old masterpieces. Such a Cartel would need to be very Well capitalized. Van Gogh we arc using round Fig ures has a Hundred canvases of Compa Rable or near comparable value. That s $4 billion right there for just one of say 50 artists who attain to that rank. Renoir painted or Drew 17,000 canvases you do the arithmetic. But just As the Hunt Brothers were finally done in by All the Silver coming Oul from  the mattress the old Mas Terzuolo Cartel would almost certainly be done in by the marginal Salt front the marginal museums. The Albuquerque museum of Modem an might do Cir that the people of Albuquerque would be better off with $40 million Worth of other things than with one Van Gogh 3. Professor Edward Banfield of har Vard Drolc a very provocative Book Sev eral years ago called the democratic  the Book drove an dealers and museums crazy by asserting two or three propositions. The first of these is that reproductive techniques have reached a level of competence comparable to what audio technology has attained. If somebody slips a Shower curtain Over you you will Nai be Able to Tell whether you Are surrounded by a symphony orchestra or by amplification so refined Aslo make absolutely the same sounds. By the same Token. Professor Banfield reminds us there Are spectrographic Whiz making techniques that permit the reproduction of an Oil painting with such Fidelity As to make it impossible for the expert to distinguish the reproduction from the facsimile. In deed in order to preserve the identity of the originals it is usually required thai the reproduction be an Inch longer or an Inch Shorter for the record. We have had professor Banfield Points Oul lawsuits having to do with the question whether this Canvas or that one is an original or a forgery. Five experts will be invited in icy will spend hours examining the pictures and the ruling will be 3-2 in favor of version a where upon version a is Worth $5 million and version 8 is Worth $23. Question does that really make sense if even experts can be fooled can t laymen expect to Jet the same pleasure from viewing version b that they will now get from viewing version a a some will say but a pan of the pleasure of viewing version a is that the Public is viewing something Worth $5 million. To which the professor says Bui you could draw As big a crowd by accumulating $3 million in Hundred Dollar Bills and piling them onto a shelf in the museum. 4. The suspicion crystallizes that the preposterous Price of original Art works is a Subtle collusion Between the Art Deal Era and the collectors. And the question inevitably arises Haven t they Over played their hand if modern technology has indeed permitted us to live in a museum without Walls then Why Don t we do to great paintings what we have done to great music put them on discs and sell them for $29.95 each of make the appropriate modifications. But the Van Gogh Sale May do to Art what that incremental Silver Dollar did to the Hunts when somebody turned it in to their perspiring Cartel and said Here give me 75 Bucks for this one Buck piece of Silver. A ump Lisai Mas