According to Bloomberg a chalk drawing by Raphael was the most expensive piece of art bought last year.  It sold for a cool $47.5 million to a dude named Leon Black.  Black runs the Apollo Management, the private equity firm which owns aluminum Noranda.

Noranda has famously warred with AmerenUE over electric rates.  One observer mused if AUE president Tom Voss engaged in any sort of conspicuous consumption there’d be howls of outrage.  And maybe, they joked, if Black hadn’t spent all that money on art, Noranda wouldn’t feel so pinched by their electric bill.