By Richard Dunbar, Senior Investment Strategist, Investment Solutions, Aberdeen
The world’s larger auction houses have seen a lot of action over the last few weeks. This is a market that we don’t normally comment on, although much of what is going on is arguably symptomatic of something that we do regularly comment on: quantitative easing (QE).
At Christie’s in New York, the manuscript to Don McLean’s 'American Pie' recently went under the hammer, raising an astonishing $1.2m. More recently, Picasso’s famous and beautiful picture, 'Les Femmes d’Alger', set a new record figure for the price of a piece of contemporary art fetching an even more astonishing $179m. Surprisingly, there may be common themes behind both purchases.
