"What recession? In Venice, party rolls on" by Sebastian Smee, Globe Staff | June 7, 2009
VENICE - With the art world supposedly in crisis - prices dropping, profits of auction houses plummeting, museums engaged in drastic cost-cutting - the art world has gone on doing what it does best: partying, partying, and more partying.
Recession be damned. Evidence of ludicrous wealth is everywhere at the Biennale, which officially opens today. Cartoonishly sleek yachts, all registered in the Cayman Islands, line the Grand Canal near the entrance to the Biennale. Politicians and art collectors have arrived at the numerous exhibition openings all over the lagoon by water taxi, many of the men with trophy wives in tow....
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