Wealthy Cling to Art and Other Treasures in a Low-Return World

Stock portfolios in recent years have provided scant comfort. All too often, those share prices on a computer screen -- who even has paper stock certificates anymore? -- are the difference between a good night's sleep or pacing yourself into a flop sweat. Even when the numbers do go up, volatility seems to drag them down. That has wealthy investors longing for tangible assets -- something they can showcase in their living rooms, drive through their towns in, or even wear from time to time.

Just last week someone paid more for a car than has ever been spent before, when a 1962 apple-green Ferrari 250 GTO sold for $35 million in a private sale. Also in May, Edvard Munch's painting "The Scream" sold at auction for a record $120 million -- in 12 minutes. And in December of last year, Elizabeth Taylor's jewelry collection set a world record at $157 million.