From our Compare and Contrast in Clear Idiomatic English desk

There’s a shipload of historic fine art up for auction in the Big Town right now, and it’s characterized very differently in the local broadsheets.

The Wall Street Journal, not surprisingly, takes a financialist view of the big sell-off.

$1 Billion in Art Heading to Auction

Collectors from Paul Allen to Madonna aim to sell paintings in New York sales next week

It’s a seller’s market. Next Tuesday when New York’s chief auction houses kick off two weeks of major art sales, collectors will see price tags for paintings that put other luxury goods to shame. Four canvases alone are estimated to sell for at least $30 million apiece—a trophy price rarely demanded during the recession or even before.

That’s because bigwig sellers who know how to gauge the art market’s cycle noticed a reassuring uptick in American bidding during a similar round of New York auctions last fall, a confidence that was matched by exuberant global bidding at London sales earlier this spring. Now, sellers are dusting off their masterpieces and trying to ride the wave.

Among the featured artworks in the Journal piece are André Derain’s “Madame Matisse in a Kimono” (estimate $15 million) . . .

Read the rest at Its Good to Live in a Four-Daily Town.