Hey, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Current Yield, the Grant's interest rate observer of the air.

And I'm Jim Grant, with me as always.

Eric Whitehead at the control panel and the great Edmund Lorenz, deputy editor of Grants.

And with us today is Wendy Battleson, who is an authority in art, also a bit of a financial

engineer, world traveler, and all around excellent source of information on the art market. Wendy

will hold forth in just a moment. We have two sponsors today. Purple mattress is one. That's for

you insomniacs or others who need a little bit more rest, and Grant's Interest Rate Observer.

I'll be talking to John Delberta, who is the friendly voice on the telephone when you give him

your credit card information to sign up for even more years of Grant's Interest Rate Observer.

So Wendy, welcome to Current Yield.

Thank you so much for having me.

Well, it is a pleasure, and constant readers of Grant's interest rate observer

will remember the name because Wendy Battleson provided the most plain-spoken, informative,

and indeed provoking quotes in the story we ran on September 7th in Grants. And the headline,

I kind of like the headline what he was the deal of the art, which is kind of

an election themed headline. Absolutely. Yeah, but Wendy, I'm not sure I did full justice in my very

brief skimming introduction of your CV because you spent nearly 10 years at Christie's and there you

were in charge of all manner of financial strategies to move the, I say move the, and the carpet

is they move the iron. What do they call it in art? Move the canvas. I think that's appropriate.

I like that. Could you tell us to start with, I mean, Everett has got this great,

furnished me with a great question. All right, here it is. Last month in London, the Banksy painting,

Girl with Balloon, self-shredded. And as soon as the gavel came down or just shortly thereafter,

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