The art market is on such a tear even the insiders are scratching their heads. Since New York’s spring sales started last week, at least $2.1 billion of art has been sold at Christie’s and Sotheby’s, with the top 10 lots accounting for almost $800 million.

Christie’s said collectors from 35 countries were bidding at its May 11 sale while Sotheby’s said clients from more than 40 countries were out in force the next evening. They jockeyed for Impressionist, modern, postwar and contemporary art.

“There’s a lot of money out there and people are chasing great works,” said Mera Rubell, who, along with her husband, Don, runs a private museum in Miami showcasing their collection. “Now the young artists are selling for millions.”

That means bargain hunters will be sorely disappointed: Picasso and Monet may be at record highs, but prices for living (if not quite young) artists are nipping at their heels. The 60-year-old Christopher Wool’s canvas spelling “Riot” in chunky black letters sold for $29.9 million — the same price paid for a 1948 Picasso portrait of his lover Francoise Gilot.

Records were smashed. In just 11 minutes, bidding for a Picasso surged from $100 million to $160 million before settling at $179.4 million, the most expensive work ever purchased at auction. The value of the work increased by 462 percent.

David Fuller's view

These astonishing art prices tell us several things.  1) What we already knew is that leading stock markets have done very well.  2) Liquidity is abundant.  3) The deflation that we are experiencing is mostly positive and created by technology.  4) Confidence among wealth creators is very high.  5) The global economy is much more likely to expand than contract. 

What could go wrong?

Keep an eye on bond markets.  Combined, they are arguably the biggest bubble of all time.  If we are very lucky, they will deflate slowly.  What concerns me most is that the exit from such low yields could be largely one-way traffic.