For a few minutes they discussed the art market, which was quite demented. Many experts had believed that the previous period of speculative frenzy would be followed by a calmer period, where the market would grow slowly, regularly, at a normal rhythm; some had even predicted that art would become a safe investment; they were mistaken. THERE ARE NO MORE SAFE INVESTMENTS, as the Financial Times had recently headlined an editorial; and speculation in the domain of art had become even more intense, more disorderly, and more frenetic, with values set and revised in the twinkling of an eye.

From Michel Houellebecq’s The Map and the Territory, London: Vintage Books, 2012 (first published in 2010), p. 270.