Not surprisingly, the economy was topic number one at this fall’s gala opening of the International Fine Art and Antique Dealers Show at the Park Avenue Armory. As such guests as the former Merrill Lynch CEO—and now Bank of America honcho—John Thain, the real estate baron Aby Rosen and Martha Stewart munched mini hamburgers, one fairgoer asked the billionaire oilman David Koch, left with his wife, Julia, how his 2005 acquisition of the lumber giant Georgia-Pacific for $21 billion was treating him. When conversation turned to shelters of the nontax variety, Koch made clear he’s not in buying mode, exclaiming with jovial exasperation: “I have enough houses right now!”

Very Shelter-ed" originally appeared in the December 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's December 2008 Table of Contents.