But there are also mediocre paintings and big gaps, and the show does little to clarify Braque's development and achievement.

Victor Niederhoffer, the money manager who lost all his shirts last year, marvels that his silver-trophy collection barely fetched the price of a "mediocre Impressionist painting."

Collectors today only want the very best, and they would rather buy the greatest watercolor than a mediocre painting.

It's like, a dance that already exists sells for way, way less than a mediocre painting from the 80's.

In the Impressionist and Modern art sales and in the contemporary art auctions, when a mediocre painting came up, bidding frequently evaporated, and the room went dead.

The resulting sale consisted of mediocre paintings, drawings and sculptures, many of which had been on the market all too recently.

He screwed the piano stool down to its lowest elevation, put it in, added his palette, the picnic cooler, and balanced precariously on top of everything else, his mediocre painting.

The trouble was, those altarpieces were mediocre paintings and they made a dim first impression on discerning visitors, Raphael's name notwithstanding.

If the Gachet show tells us anything, it is that even mediocre paintings have a purpose, which is to give us a firmer grasp of genuine greatness.

Japanese collectors trusted the certificate and would not commission a European expert to authenticate a mediocre painting.