RECORD PRICES AT PARISIAN ART AUCTION: A GOOD SIGN OR BAD? BOTH.

NYTIMES:

Despite the global economic crisis, a lot of money seems to be left over.

On Monday, the private collection of Yves Saint Laurent and his partner became the most expensive one ever sold at auction, bringing in more than $264 million on the first night alone.

The only significant failure in the sale, one of six auctions of the collection being held over three days by Christie’s, was an apparently overpriced Picasso from the artist’s late Cubist period.

The auction house pulled the work when bids stopped at 21 million euros ($26 million) on a painting that had been estimated at 25 million to 30 million euros.

But records were set for Matisse, Marcel Duchamp, Constantin Brancusi, James Ensor, Piet Mondrian and Giorgio de Chirico. The Matisse, a colorful painting from 1911 of a vase of cowslips on a carpet, sold for $40.9 million, double its estimate.

... A rare wood Brancusi statue, “Madame L.R.,” originally owned by the artist Fernand Léger, sold for $33.3 million, and it was also a good night for the Mondrian market, with a 1922 composition in white, blue, yellow and black selling for $24.59 million, a record. A monochrome by Mondrian, whose art inspired one of Mr. Laurent’s best-known collections, sold for more than $16.4 million.

• ARE THESE PRICES INDICATIVE OF A FLIGHT TO SAFETY, OF SORTS? YES.
  
• OR A WAY OF SHELTERING ASSETS FROM NEW TAXES? YES.
  

BOTTOM-LINE: THERE'S SHITLOAD OF MONEY OUT THERE - MUCH OF IT AFRAID TO GO INTO STOCKS AND BONDS - FOR THE TIME BEING, BUT AS SOON AS THE USA MAKES ITSELF MORE CONDUCIVE TO INVESTMENT, THIS MONEY WILL POUR IN.

ALAS: THIS WILL HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL 2010 - WHEN THE GOP RETAKES CONGRESS.