Medieval Period Art and the Identity of Artists

There are 2 parts of this assignment
1. Arts for sale
From the sale of the Juan de Pareja to the MET for a then-record price of $5.5 million in 1970 to the $110 million paid for a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat in 2017, the amount of money generated by the sale of works of art has been an important part of our narrative in this lesson. Should these things matter? What story do these numbers tell us? Should economics play a role in how we define quality or importance? Are the most expensive objects the greatest objects?
If so, the greatest object in the world is a painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci called the Salvator Mundi that sold for $450 million in 2017—the most expensive work of art ever sold.
For more on this sale, read this article: https://www(dot)vulture(dot)com/2019/04/salvator-mundi-leonardo-da-vinci.html
Please share your thoughts about the following questions:
What factors do you think go into why one object is more valuable than another: The person who made it? Age? Beauty? Rarity? Hype?
What role does economics play in how we gauge the importance of musicians. How do things like album sales, streams, or tour earnings affect how our society judges the success of artists? Are the musicians making the most money the BEST musicians
2. Identity has played a large role in this lesson—the anonymous sculptors of the Middle Ages, the art of African Americans, and the big prices paid for big-name artists at auction. Is it important for us to know who made things? Does it shape or modify our expectations when we know the background of the artist who has created something?
In some fashion, is all art autobiographical or should art explore experiences that are universal? Can we, or should we, separate the art from the artist?
Your post should be two to three (well-developed) paragraphs long.