Damien Hirst's "Where Will It End?" (1993) sold at White Cube for $2.8 million.

"Art world thumbs nose at crisis in Paris," goes the headline in Agence France-Press in a review of the opening day of FIAC art fair. It got off to an "upbeat start...despite the grim economic outlook." Or maybe it's out of spite for the grim economic outlook?

The article is basically a compendium of enthusiastic quotes from people that have either spent a lot of money or made a lot of money.

Pace Gallery's Arne Glimcher: "We have sold a lot of works. We are feeling no impact from the financial crisis."

Canadian collector Francois Odermatt, on the blue Anish Kapoor sculpture he purchased: "I bought the same one in red at the Basel fair this year."

And according to Hervé Odermatt, a former gallery owner, China is "keeping the art market afloat." He adds: "There are more and more millionaires in China. You might have a luxury car, or diamonds--if you don't have art on your walls, you're seen as a peasant!"

Yeah. No one wants to be a peasant.

Art Media Agency said that at the opening day of FIAC, "Success seems inevitable."

We get more of the same gushing in Bloomberg:

Matthew Armstrong, the curator for Lightyear Capital said, "The fair has zip to it this year."

Zip-a-dee-do-dah!

Someone has to be having a bad day at FIAC, right? Maybe some dealer stubbed a toe or tripped over a pile of money?