Conferred an aura to the work

1. Does "and perhaps conferred an aura to the work by default" mean "and perhaps gave a new layer of meaning to that artwork"?

2. Does the yellow section mean "the action of throwing color on one of the posters was an objection to the fact that Levine, despite his earlier critiques of art and commerce, had planned to sell his posters for £50,000 (because they were limited edition hand-made posters and he could easily sell them as art)?

Context:
The depth of feeling behind the negative responses that the campaign provoked can be gauged not only from complaints received, but also in the fact that the hoarding company, London and Provincial tried to renege on their posting contract, and from the hostile behaviour of one member of the public, who threw a pot of black paint over one of the posters near the Elephant and Castle in London. As Michael McNay, writing for The Guardian, noted, this gesture seemed to reverse Ruskin’s libellous statement about Whistler throwing a pot of paint into the public’s face and perhaps conferred an aura to the work by default. It certainly transpired that Levine, despite his earlier critiques of art and commerce, was able to price his posters at £50,000, on the basis that they were limited edition screen prints. The introduction of this sort of pricing seems to be a far cry from the philosophy that underpinned the Disposables and, although Levine’s billboard posters acquired radical potential by temporarily mimicking advertisements, this sort of price tag demonstrates that their ultimate destiny was that of a collectible work of art (Art and Advertising by Joan Gibbons).