U can't start asking "WHY" in a fiction story. This reviewer finds fault with every darn thing starting from the verb "staggered" (he'd probably have preferred "slouched") to the artist whose painting the curator is depicted to have grabbed. Surely, a novel is an expression of the author's viewpoints. Has the author even bothered to take a look at the painting mentioned in the paragraph : Merisi da Caravaggio's? It is really one fine piece of art. Would the reviewer have liked each and every reference to paintings in the book to be one of Da Vince's or Van Goghs? How then, pray, will art-ignorant people like myself learn to appreciate good art. The reviewer should (literally) have his word-processor washed out with soap.
