How would you interpret the last sentence?
Poor Tom. And also the forty-odd artists who will suffer from this, but somehow I worry most for Tom. He believed in Advancing American Art, and not just the free ride to Europe. Now he has to hang his head, call Paris and Prague, and explain the show isn’t coming. They will dismantle it, sell off these treasures to the first low bid so the Department of State can recover the taxpayers’ cash. The boss will make Tommy do the worst of it. The O’Keeffe already went for fifty dollars he said, salt in the wound.

1.How would you interpret ‘The O’Keeffe already went for fifty dollars’ in the last sentence?
Does it mean the O’Keeffe’s picture had already been sold for fifty dollars?
2. How would you interpret ‘salt in the wound’?
Thanks!By the way, I think ‘The O’Keeffe already went for fifty dollars’ is said by Tommy, and ‘salt in the wound’ is the narrator’s word. Otherwise, the sentence should be: The O’Keeffe already went for fifty dollars, he said, salt in the wound.
What do you think?

Question

How would you interpret the last sentence?
Poor Tom. And also the forty-odd artists who will suffer from this, but somehow I worry most for Tom. He believed in Advancing American Art, and not just the free ride to Europe. Now he has to hang his head, call Paris and Prague, and explain the show isn’t coming. They will dismantle it, sell off these treasures to the first low bid so the Department of State can recover the taxpayers’ cash. The boss will make Tommy do the worst of it. The O’Keeffe already went for fifty dollars he said, salt in the wound.

1.How would you interpret ‘The O’Keeffe already went for fifty dollars’ in the last sentence?
Does it mean the O’Keeffe’s picture had already been sold for fifty dollars?
2. How would you interpret ‘salt in the wound’?
Thanks!By the way, I think ‘The O’Keeffe already went for fifty dollars’ is said by Tommy, and ‘salt in the wound’ is the narrator’s word. Otherwise, the sentence should be: The O’Keeffe already went for fifty dollars, he said, salt in the wound.
What do you think?

Answer

Yes, 'The O'Keeffe' is referring to a picture or piece of artwork that has already been sold. Either it was painted by O'Keeffe or was called O'Keeffe.

If you put salt into a cut on your hand it hurts like hell. To demonstrate how much something hurts us without the actual physical pain, we say 'it has rubbed salt into my wounds' which means that an action hurt us emotionally but not physically.

Answer

Tom was experiencing a series of misfortunes when he experienced a further indignity, the low price received for the painting.  "Salt in the wound" is an allegory for this, implying that it's bad enough to be injured, but to have salt put into the wound just increases the pain already felt.