Echoing comments made by Laurence Graff a few weeks ago during the London sales, a significant collector made these comments to Time‘s Jeff Israely:

David Nahmad, one of the world’s top private art dealers who doubles as a major world currency trader, says the eagerness to invest cash in art is a very visible confirmation of the skepticism that investors have about the crippled financial system. “People today don’t know where to put their money. The banks are fragile, the hedge funds don’t exist anymore, stocks are weak,” says Nahmad. “It’s better to stick to art, something you can touch with your hand.” The dwindling supply on the market of top Impressionist 20th century art means museum-quality work should offer stable — and potentially stratospheric — growth over the coming years. In 1979, two years before the record-setting 1911 Mattise would wind up in Saint Laurent’s hands, Nahmad paid about $300,000 for the piece. Although he is sanguine about the market, the dealer, based in Monte Carlo, Monaco, was staggered by Monday’s sale

Amid Financail Crisis, Saint Laurent Art Sets Records (Time)