$136 million for a Klimt, $71.7 million for an Andy Warhol...It's not that art is expensive, but rather that money has become cheap for certain collectors?Russian oligarchs, Chinese, and American hedge-fund managers. Collections are being redistributed to new fortunes around the world. Sophisticated marketing campaigns, the most luxurious parties, a new wealthy elite passionate about art cross paths to compete for paintings now considered trophies. At present, details like "who's selling what" and "which auction house is organizing the sale" play an important role in sums fetched. The goal is paradoxical: always pay more. Worth of Art (2) offers an inside and outside view on an art world nourished by excess. AUTHOR After studying international law and political science, journalist Judith Benhamou-Huet became an expert in the art market. She pens the weekly column on the subject at Échos and at Le Point, as well as a monthly column for ArtPress. She has compiled several large reports on art for Art lAuction, the Swiss daily Neue Zurcher Zeitung, the magazine Beaux-Arts and Vogue France. She has organized many symposiums on the art market, most recently in Shangai, addressing business men as art collectors.The editor of Elle Accessories, Kelly Killoren Bensimon is also the author of American Style and In the Spirit of the Hamptons at Assouline Publishing. ILLUSTRATIONS 150 illustrations
