Greed is good—sometimes

One hundred years from now, if the Crocker Art Museum is still a going concern, it may be showing Thomas Kinkade prints and other works from the collections of Bernard Ebbers, Dennis Kozlowski, Ken Lay and John Rigas, to demonstrate the millennial excesses of our current-day klepto-barons. If you go to the Crocker now, however, you can see some prime examples of what the wealthy were blowing their excess cash on during the last turn of the century, when they at least had the good sense and taste to spend it on fine art. The Gilded Age: Treasures From the Smithsonian Museum of American Art is a traveling exhibition that contains 60 pieces by such artists of the day as Childe Hassam, Winslow Homer, Albert Pinkham Ryder and John Singer Sargent. The showing runs through October 6 at the Crocker at 216 O St., which is open Tuesday through Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; until 9 p.m. on Thursday, $6 (adults), $4 (seniors), $3 (students w/I.D), free (kids under six; everyone on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.).