And yet there he was. Also to be seen in Palm Beach was Jock Reynolds, director of the Yale University Art Gallery; Contemporary Arts Museum Houston's Marti Mayo was espied chatting with the New Museum's Lisa Phillips in the Marriott cafe; the Whitney's Adam Weinberg was spotted making a cell phone call in the lobby; and Michael Govan, whose departure from Dia had just been announced and whose arrival at LACMA was still in the rumor stage (it was later confirmed), was seen talking on his Treo on the patio.

In an unusual and apparently coincidental overlap of the commercial and non-commercial art worldsin the minds of some, akin to the conflation of church and statethe American Association of Museum Directors was holding its annual meeting at the Marriott during the fairs opening days.

Adding to the strangeness was yet another seeming coincidence: A large sign in the lobby announced a continuous, Morgan Stanley-sponsored shuttle between the Marriott and the Breakers, which was hosting a hedge fund forum. In case you have been asleep for the past year, the art world's latest mega-collectors are, of course, the so-called "hedge fund guys."

Whether the hedge funders or the museum mandarins made it over to the fair remained a question, but the harmonic convergence led one to wonder

Images (top to bottom): © Patrick McMullan Co. (7); Courtesy of Graff Diamonds, New York and London; Courtesy of Phoenix Ancient Art, New York; Courtesy of Noortman Master Paintings (3); Courtesy of Marco Voena, Milan (2).