The fact that enormous sums are paid for pieces of art is not acceptable at a time when many people around the world live in poverty. Discuss this statement and give your opinion.

It is believed that spending money on arts is not very useful and that it should be directed elsewhere. I completely disagree with this and feel that arts are worth every penny that is spent on them. First of all, arts are considered a national interest. In some countries, arts have significant importance and government establishes and maintains organizations that preserve arts. For example, Canada, USA, UK, Australia have art museums all over the country that exhibit ancient arts. People who are interested can visit the museums free of cost. The cost of maintenance is undertaken by the government. Moreover, this increases the level of interest among the people. Thus, the government puts an inconsiderable amount of effort to preserve the arts in the form of museums, craft exhibitions, etcetera. Secondly, arts are considered to be a great form of entertainment by several people in the country. For instance, movies, exhibitions, crafts are derived from arts. Movies are considered very lucrative and there is a film industry for every language. Like, Hollywood is for English, Tollywood is for Telugu, Bollywood for Hindi. Exhibitions and crafts display several creations like paintings, clay buildings, paper arts, and glass paintings. Encouragement for arts from government improves the livelihood of thousands of people who base their career on arts. This proves beneficial both to people who work on arts and others who enjoy arts. To conclude, since arts play an important role in the lives of people, it is very important for the government to make sure that arts are financed properly in a variety of forms like museums, exhibitions, documentary films, craft expos, and so on.