Sell your house right now and buy some art: that's Londonist's advice for beating the credit crunch. At least, that's the only conclusion to draw on hearing that Christie's have had a second record-breaking art sale inside of a week.
This one saw a new world record set for a Jeff Koons sculpture – £12.9 million for his 'Ballon FLower, Magenta', a huge chrome sculpture that has stood on display in St James's Square in the run up to the sale.
In case you're worried that art owners of other post-war masterpieces might be feeling the pinch, rest assured that in the same sale a Francis Bacon sold for £17.3 million and a Lucien Freud sold for £11.8 million.
If selling your studio in Streatham won't raise that kind of cash, you could always have picked up a Gilbert and George piece for a snip at £1.9 million – though this too is a record for one of their works.
Londonist will be heading down to Christie's next sale to leave cheeky £50 bids on every painting. Art is clearly much safer than houses right now!
Photo courtesy of ChrisJohnBeckett’s Photostream under the Creative Commons license.
