Sign that there is Too Much Money Sloshing Around: Art Sales Hit New Record

Even though much of this spending is by new museums opening up that money is coming from somewhere.

Works worth $15.2 billion (13.5 billion euros) sold at auction during the year, an increase of 26 percent on 2013, Artprice said in its annual report, produced with China's Artron.

A record number of 1,679 sales worth $1 million or more were recorded over the year, four times more than a decade ago, it added.

Thierry Ehrmann, founder and CEO of Artprice, described the figures as "an amazing result, an increase of 300 percent in a decade".

That decade was one of low interest rates and much money printing. Oh and this generic looking thing sold for $84 million.