Sovereign wealth fun

Cash is King. In the current art market, the spending has toppled our prior (that is, pre-2008) conceptions of "irrational exuberance." According to the 2014 Artprice Annual Report, July 2013 to July 2014 was the best 12-month period for contemporary art auctions since the publication started tracking the industry eight years ago. The spendthrift mood hit a new peak when, during New York's November sales for Impressionist, modern, postwar and contemporary art, Sotheby's, Christie's and Phillips transacted USD 2.3 billion in two weeks. Meanwhile in Hong Kong, Christie's sold a 15th-century Tibetan thangka for USD 45 million to the same Shanghainese taxi-driver-turned-billionaire who had snapped up a tiny porcelain "chicken cup" for USD 36 million at Sotheby's Hong Kong in April.