The Sweet Smell of Art and Dollars

These have been heady days. And I'm not even talking about politics. Only a few weeks ago the art market reached a seemingly insane high with the sale by David Geffen of two post-World War II paintings: the de Kooning for $63.5 million and the Jasper Johns for $80 million. But if you think that that's a lot of dough, how about the $140 million that Mexican financier, David Martinez, handed to David Geffen for an iconic drip-painting by Jackson Pollock, the costliest art sale ever made. So, let's do the numbers. In one month Mr. Geffen sold three paintings from his collection for $283.5 million. Considering that his net worth is estimated to be $4.6 billion and his passion for art collecting has never been in doubt, the question arises: why is he parting with such stellar examples from his collection?...