Bloomberg previews this week’s Old Master sales in London with a little dealer small talk:

• “Prices at auction are very strong because there isn’t much out there,” Johnny van Haeften, a London-based dealer, said in an interview. “People don’t want to sell at the moment. They’re saying, ‘If I let a painting go, where do I put the money? I’d rather keep it in a work of art.’”

• “Old Masters have come to the fore now there’s been less of a focus on other sectors of the art market,” said Paul Raison, Christie’s London-based departmental head. “More and more buyers are looking across boundaries to buy wonderful things.”

• “It’s always been a small market,” said the London-based dealer Jean-Luc Baroni. “It’s the same collectors doing the buying and they’re now in their 60s and 70s. It’s not impossible to find new people, but it’s difficult,” said Baroni in an interview.

Rembrandt, Raphael Set for Records in $133 Million London Sales (Bloomberg)