The series of paintings done by Colombian artist Fernando Botero based on the Abu Ghraib photographs may become part of the permanent collection of the University of California, Berkeley, according to news sources. UC Berkeley chancellor Robert Birgeneau has said that the university and the artist "have a gentleman's agreement" pending mutually agreeable conditions, and has said that he was impressed by the work's "emotional impact and technical brilliance."

Experts estimate the gift to be worth between $10 million and $15 million. Botero has said that he would never sell the paintings, and has turned down an offer from a German museum to build a wing to house the collection.

There's a lesson in marketing there somewhere for all artists. And also a lesson on the power of representational visual art to drive home a point - a political point in this case - by using the narrative powers of representational art to underscore an issue.

These images, in a sense, were already part of our visual art scene. After all, it was the photographs upon which they are based that exploded into our collective eyes when they were first released.

By basing his works on them, Botero skilfully recognized that in the 21st century painting is still king, and lifting an image from a photograph to create a painting still "elevates" that image to a higher fine arts realm in the minds of many people.

They're no longer just photos in our computer screens and newspapers; they're now fine art. And it also brought Botero back into the fine arts limelight and contemporary dialogue and away from fat people paintings.

It sounds like Birgeneau has just written to Botero and nothing has been heard back from the wily Colombian.

Which gives me an idea.

I think that the best place for these paintings is not Left Wing Nut U in California, but right here in Washington, DC.

And not as part of the permanent collection of any of our great DC area museums, most of which already have Boteros in their collection, but as part of the permanent collection of the Pentagon.

As many of the people who have taken the free Pentagon tour know, the building has a really impressive art collection on its walls. As one would expect, it is mostly military subjects and historical paintings.