Extra

To the surprise of K, the two persons on the other side of the table do not appear to be offended by his incriminating remark.  Mr. Charrington remains speechless but is frowning even more vigorously – if that’s at all possible. Ms. O’Brien continues with her ever so charming voice, “Mr. Director, I’m afraid that’s the fact that you have not only to face, but also to swallow. To tell you the truth, opening a new wing in the museum to display kids’ paintings is just part of our plan.”

“What do you mean?” K is immediately on the guard.

“We have decided to put some paintings by the kids from the Oceania Kindergarten into your existing exhibition halls. You see? In that case you could boost up the number of your collection by a trivial sum of money.”

K is dumbfounded. He believes if he were a visitor, he would find it horrifying to see Monet’s The Water Lilies by the side of a kid’s painting. True, the original collection – and a brilliant one, too – is still there, but the value of the museum does not go up by having some extra paintings by kids. Paradoxically, the perceived value goes down. K remembers that’s a classical psychological trap described by Daniel Kahneman.

The room remains silent. K sighs. It takes a few minutes to pull himself together and leave the meeting. All of a sudden he feels that he is living in the universe with some crooked rules of physics.