Win Some, Lose Some

The art market continues to be faddy in the teeth of recession. Claude Monet’s Dans la Prairie (1876) sold for £11m at Christie's London auction of Impressionist and Modern art, less than its guide price of £15m. But Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's L'abandon or Les deux amies for the prissy Brit. market (1895) went under the hammer for £6m (nearly $9m), smack in the centre of its estimate of £5m to £7m. Madame Monet looks a right old battle axe despite the flowers, so here's L'abandon. "We're just good friends ... er ... having an innocent roll in the hay". Looks demi-monde to me, girls.