Maybe art world provides ray of light for housing

Derain’s “Barque au Port de Collioure,” which sold for $14 million at a Sotheby’s auction this month. (Sotheby’s)

Is the art market trying to tell us something?  Is it good news not only for the art market but for the housing market as well, never mind the economy in general?  Consider these results from this year’s auctions:

• In February, Sotheby’s “made history,” in the words of the New York Times, for the second week in a row with a London auction that brought in $84.5 million and the earlier one that had a journalist marveling at the market’s “dizzying heights;”
• In May, a Sotheby’s auction realizes $190 million, with only three lots failing to find takers, while