What do you want?

Wants For Sale is a project by a NYC-based couple of artists. The concept is simple: they paint something they want (a watch, an Adidas shoe, an iPhone, underwear), sell the painting for the price of the item and then go and buy the object they wanted. Still for sale at this time: 'Want A Little Shopping in SoHo' ($2,500) and 'Want Charles Saatchi To Buy This Painting' (only £1 - the painting reads "Instant Street Cred").

(The artists also have a charity-project called Needs For Sale.)

For sale: Art and optimism

The New York Times reports on the high estimates in the upcoming auctions. "You can’t help but wonder just how many of the smartly dressed people sitting night after night at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips de Pury over the next two weeks will be serious bidders and how many will be voyeurs hoping to witness an implosion of the multibillion dollar art market. For years collectors and the news media have been speculating about when prices would finally top out. Spring sales estimates don’t suggest pessimism."

The Francis Bacon triptych pictured here has an estimate of about 70 million USD.

The recipe for a record price

Auction house hype, media frenzy, and billionaire buyers.

Nobody understands better than an auction house that price appreciation of this magnitude is seldom intrinsic to the work.