To raise funds for El Museo del Barrio, in New York, the Cuban-born artist Ruben Toledo is embracing one of his native country’s best traditions: the fine cigar. Toledo, who is known for his illustrations in magazines like the New Yorker, teamed up with the high-end cigar producer La Flor Dominicana to create limited-edition smokes encircled with gold-embossed bands and cradled in white lacquer boxes holding 32 each. This month, elite Manhattan tobacconists will be offering the boxes for around $600 a pop, with all proceeds benefiting the Museo. Since Toledo’s fashion-designer wife, Isabel, famously outfitted First Lady Michelle Obama on inauguration day, the question is, What are the chances that these sleek cigars will find their way into the White House? Slim, but maybe not impossible: Although President Obama is swearing off smoking, visitors like the Sultan of Brunei, said to be an aficionado, would probably appreciate a premium puff.

"Smoke Signals" originally appeared in the May 2009 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's May 2009 Table of Contents.