what about -- what is it about this painting with the blocks and rectangles, the malevich, that holdsppeal for buyers? >> just in historical context. it was one of the first abstract canvases. is very popular, but back then, people were pacing -- painting landscapes and still lives and portraits, and malevich broke it down to basic geometric forms, very radical at the time. scarlet: you write about how the auctioneer made a difference. he was charming and authoritative. does that make that much of a difference? >> you really have to have control over the room, inspire people to bid. you have to be funny, you have to be authoritarian. he did a great job. he is a fairly new auctioneer at the big evening sales and did a great job. mentioned obviously that the painting had sold before and is worth a lot more. are there indexes against which paintings are attractive, so we can say stocks go up over time but still might underperform in the overall market? have the paintings beat the overall? >> the paintings indices? this one certainly did. you can compare to stx. brancusi,ure by definitely