Income inequality down to a fine art

WE don't know the identities of most of the buyers who made this a blockbuster week for art auctions, bidding up works by Rothko, Giacometti and Lichtenstein, among others, to eight and nine figures. "Les Femmes d'Alger (Version 'O')", a 1955 painting by Picasso, sold for US$179.4 million.

We don't know exactly where their money came from, or why they chose to spend vast amounts of it at auctions held by Christie's and Sotheby's.

But this much we do know: The astronomical rise in prices for the most-sought-after works of art over the last generation is in large part the story of rising global inequality.