If you are feeling blue due to the slowdown in purchases of luxury products and services, especially the decline in the luxury home market, have a seat, and remember that the wealthy are with us still, as evidenced by what has been touted as "the auction of the century."
Billed officially by Christie's auction house as the "Collection Yves Saint Laurent et Pierre Berge," the event, held earlier this year, had more than 30,000 visitors lining up in Paris at the three-day pre-sale event to get a peek at the treasures to be auctioned. But the real excitement started when the bidding began and the wealthy competed in person and by phone to own something that came with a dollop of YSL mystique.
Bids were in the atmospheric range and seven world record prices were set in the first day of the three day sale, including those for the works of Matisse (a painting at $46 million), Brancusi (sculpture at $37.6million), Mondrian (painting for $27.1 million), and deChirico (painting for $14.2 million).
An Eileen Gray chair (pictured) went for more than $28 million.
Total proceeds of the auction reached almost half-a-billion dollars, breaking Christie's previous $76 million dollar record for a previous private sale in Paris.
So don't despair. The wealthy are still out there, standing on the sidelines. Right now it may take the excitement of a collection of art and bibelots assembled over 50-years by a global taste-maker, but tomorrow, when the economic storm clouds have moved on, the rich will be back to explore and buy what's new and exciting and beautiful in the residential housing market. We can hardly wait!
