Has art just become an investment opportunity?

FIRST there were artists. Then there were patrons — rich people with enough good taste that they enabled artists to live and make their art.

Eventually, patrons made room for speculators, fake collectors who reap great sums by tinkering with expensive artists’ prices.

But in the days of art as an asset (think luxury yachts, but also gold bullion and Apple Inc. stock) few collectors are as prized as a bona fide celebrity. Rare birds with pterodactyl-size tastes, their penchant for opulence, public display, and immediate gratification make them the ideal marks for today’s wheeling-and-dealing art galleries and auction houses. And then, of course, there’s also our 21st-century, celebrity-ravenous, hair-trigger media.