1B: William Carlos Williams & Pieter Brueghel

A man examines Pieter Brueghel the Elder's The Wedding Dance at the Detroit Institute of Arts

The Wedding Dance in the Open Air by William Carlos Williams Disciplined by the artist to go round & round in holiday gear a riotously gay rabble of peasants and their ample-bottomed doxies fills the market square featured by the women in their starched white headgear they prance or go openly toward the wood's edges round and around in rough shoes and farm breeches mouths agape Oya ! kicking up their heels *the poet: William Carlos Williams (American physician of New Jersey; 1883-1963) *artist: in this case,     Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Flemish; 1525-1569) *doxie: mistress; prostitute Will the  Detroit Institute of Arts sell Brueghel's The Wedding Dance  or other masterpieces in its collection today?  How much are they worth to Detroit today?   How much would they be worth to Detroit in 10, or even 100 years from now? The Detroit Institute of Arts and the city of Detroit are having a hard time paying their bills.  Should the museum sell masterpieces from its collection in order to balance the museum's and city's finances? For more of the story, see  "Masterpiece theater: Will Detroit have to sell its art to pay its bills? Art's true value frames debate as Detroit ponders selling museum masterpieces" by Mark Caro, Chicago Tribune, October 18, 2013.