Best part of this post is that I didn't make any of it up... not that there is anything wrong with that.

Asleep at the switch... that's all I can say. Sadly, I missed the bidding on pop artist Roy Lichtenstein's 1961 painting, I Can See the Whole Room!... And There's Nobody In It! I had an extra few hundred bucks burning a hole in my pocket and I was ready. It finally sold for a record $42,202,500, and who knows, in the excitement of the auction, I probably wouldn't have let it get away from me.

As beautiful as it is (and strangely, I really do like it), I still marvel at how he came up with the title which, just coincidentally I'm sure, is the same as the words in the painting. Now how often does that happen?

Point of reference: Pablo Picasso's 1939 Femme assise, robe bleue went for $29,133.148 (somebody saved two bucks) and Clude Monet's 1891 Les Peupliers brought $25,282,500 at Christie's Auction House this year, bad economy and all. Ahh, The Power of 1 (percent).

Me? I finally found a magnificent sofa-sized Starving Artist painting (the one with cows in it) for only $49 bucks--frame included--and I've got money left over! I'm working on the offering letter to Christie's as we speak.