Elon Musk
Why do Americans shower their billionaires with a level of adoration normally reserved for deities and saints? I think back to the Medicis and the Borgias during the Italian Renaissance. As J. H. Plumb wrote, “Commercial capitalism, struggling the the framework of feudalism, learned, through Italy, not only how to express itself in art and learning, but also how to make an art of life itself.”
Not so today, however! Donald Trump has given us golden toilet bowls, ornate golf courses, and tried to take away our democracy. Elon Musk managed to convince thousands of Americans that he was a genius—until he spent $44 billion buying Twitter and running it into the ground. After his latest anti-Semitic tirade, I think even most Tesla owners are rethinking their allegiances.
I cannot think of a billionaire today who has done anything but engage in self-aggrandizement. Instead of a Renaissance, we are now in a period that can only be described as Anti-Renaissance.
What ever happened to patronage of the arts? Oh, it still exists at the millionaire level; but not among the Trumps, Musks, and Bezoses of this world. The think the last billionaire to show any moves in this direction was Bill Gates of Microsoft fame.
Tarnmoor 
Be assured that it’s not just in America. The value of everything is measured in dollars (insert appropriate currency here) and that extends to art. We no longer have any idea how to express value (worth) in any other terms. The best golfer in the world is judged by how much money he or she earns. Stephen King is a literary genius, based upon the same artistic analysis. That’s capitalism for you. As well as the new communism.
If the Mona Lisa was painted in gold leaf it would be ‘worth’ more. And then if they melted it down and made a toilet for Donald Trump the worth would further increase. Or so he would assure his adoring sycophants.
The Australian government, way back when I was a boy, purchased Jackson Pollock’s ‘Blue Poles’, to place in the national gallery. I have always considered it to be a spell binding piece, which speaks to me in ways I cannot explain (reproductions look ridiculous, somehow) but, at the time, there was public outcry at the cost to the public pocket, which was considerable. Since then, however, the financial value has skyrocketed, suggesting that the government made a sound financial decision. Nobody complains about the cost any more. It’s as though the painting itself has somehow become miraculously better than it originally was.